The cost of sepsis

In recent years great efforts in clinical sepsis research have led to a better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology and new therapeutic approaches including drugs and supportive care. Despite this success, severe sepsis remains a serious health care problem. Each year approximately 75,000 patients in Germany and approximately 750,000 patients in the USA suffer from severe sepsis. The length of stay and the cost of laborious therapies lead to high intensive care unit (ICU) costs. Sepsis causes a significant national socioeconomic burden if indirect costs due to productivity loss are included and in Germany severe sepsis has been estimated to generate costs between 3.6 and 7.7 billion Euro annually. Thus, this complex and life-threatening disease has been identified as a high cost driver not only for the ICU, but also from the perspectives of hospitals and society. To improve the outcome of severe sepsis, innovative drugs and treatment strategies are urgently needed. Some drugs and strategies already offer promising results and will probably play a major role in the future. Even though their cost-effectiveness is likely, intensive care medicine has to carry a substantial economic burden. This article summarizes studies focusing on the evaluation of direct or indirect costs of sepsis and the cost-effectiveness of new therapies.