Abstract
Of in-patients with positive blood cultures, we found that over 70% had some evidence of brain dysfunction [1]. Forty-six percent of these were in the intensive care unit (ICU), with the rest on the wards. The encephalopathy associated with systemic infections is a diffuse disturbance in cerebral function. Septic encephalopathy is a diagnosis of exclusion: there should be no clinical or laboratory evidence of direct central nervous system (CNS) infection (e.g., meningitis, macroscopic intra-cranial abscess or empyema), head trauma, fat embolism, adverse reactions to medications, sedative or paralyzing drug effects.
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Young, G.B. (2002). Septic Encephalopathy. In: Vincent, JL. (eds) Intensive Care Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5551-0_67
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5551-0_67
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