Children suffering from sepsis will have chills, fever, panic, shortness of breath, irritability and other symptoms in the physical signs, in the laboratory examination, the doctor will often carry out blood routine, biochemistry, blood oxygen, calcitoninogen, C-reactive protein and other checks, and combined with the aetiological examination of the patient’s pathogenicity to clarify the guidance of the subsequent treatment.
Children with sepsis need to be examined for signs, laboratory tests, and pathogenetic tests.
1. Signs and symptoms: patients may have high fever, chills, headache, shortness of breath, panic, restlessness, weakness and other clinical manifestations, which may be accompanied by symptoms of the digestive system (such as vomiting, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, etc.), skin injuries (such as petechiae, hives, etc.), and children are prone to osteomyelitis.
2. Laboratory examination:
(1) Blood routine, biochemistry, blood oxygen: patients may find an increase in white blood cell count, an increase in the proportion of neutrophils, a decrease in blood pressure, or even difficulty in measuring blood pressure in some children.
(2) Calcitonin: the level of calcitonin is abnormally high in sepsis caused by bacterial infection.
(3) C-reactive protein: the level of C-reactive protein is elevated in the blood during the systemic inflammatory reaction.
3. Pathogenetic examination: blood culture should be carried out before the use of antibiotics, usually with pus, petechiae specimens for Gram staining or culture, which can initially determine or detect the pathogenic bacteria, and provide reference for the next step of clinical treatment.
If the child is diagnosed with sepsis, early standardized treatment is recommended to avoid delaying treatment.