This multicenter prospective study assessed the impact of time to administration of antibiotics on mortality in patients with sepsis. For patients with septic shock, administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics within 1 h of sepsis recognition reduced in-hospital mortality. However, in patients with sepsis without shock, the association between the antibiotic administration within 1 h and in-hospital mortality was not statistically significant. In spline regression models, limited to patients who received antibiotics within 3 h, patients with septic shock showed an increased risk of mortality for every hour of delay in antibiotic administration, but no such trend was observed in those without shock.
One of our most notable findings was the different impact of time-to-antibiotics on mortality in patients with sepsis with and without shock. This finding supports the recent statements from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and American College of Emergency Physicians that emphasize the insufficient evidence of a strict time threshold in the administration of antibiotics in patients with sepsis and suggests that patients with septic shock might derive the greatest benefit from immediate antibiotic administration [14, 15]. In addition, these data are compatible with the most recent guidelines from the Surviving Sepsis Campaign, which recommends antibiotic administration within 1 h in patients with septic shock but within 3 h in those with sepsis without shock [20].
The evidence supporting previous recommendations for administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics within 1 h in all patients with sepsis was mainly from studies on patients confined to septic shock or based on retrospective studies [2–4, 21, 22]. Two recent multicenter studies with a large sample sizes also support the findings of our study. In a study that investigated the effect of time to treatment on mortality of mandated emergency care for sepsis in 149 New York hospitals, the odds of in-hospital mortality were increased by 7% for every hour of delay in antibiotic administration in patients with septic shock, but not in those without shock [23]. In a retrospective analysis of 35,000 patients with sepsis admitted in the emergency department of 21 hospitals in Northern California, a delay in antibiotic administration was associated with increased odds of mortality, which was greatest in patients with septic shock [24]. However, in this study, an increased OR of mortality was observed in all sepsis severity strata. Notably, in this study, the definition of sepsis was based on administrative codes, with its inherent limitations. In our study, sepsis was diagnosed using the Sepsis-3 criteria, and to the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to comprehensively evaluate the association between the time to antibiotic administration and mortality of patients with sepsis or septic shock classified according to the new diagnostic criteria in a large prospective multicenter cohort.
Aggressive treatment with rapid initiation of broad-spectrum antibiotics in all patients suspected of sepsis entails unnecessary exposure to antibiotics of a significant number of patients who do not need antibiotics together with the associated risk of adverse effects of antibiotics, increased level of antimicrobial resistance, increased economic burden, and adverse outcomes [13, 25, 26]. Moreover, most hospitals do not have the resources to administer antibiotics within 1 h to all patients with suspected sepsis. In fact, in a previous study that investigated the effect of time to treatment on mortality of mandated emergency care for sepsis in 149 New York hospitals, more than half of the patients with sepsis did not receive antibiotics within 3 h of sepsis onset despite the implementation of the severe sepsis and septic shock management bundle [21]. Selecting a subpopulation of patients who could benefit most from this intervention could help in prioritizing areas of improvement in the management of sepsis/septic shock.
In addition, to the presence of shock, our study indicates that patients with several distinguishing characteristics might benefit from early antibiotic treatment. A significant reduction in in-hospital mortality was observed in patients who had higher SOFA scores or were admitted to the ICU due to early administration of antibiotics, suggesting that patients with clinically severe disease should receive antibiotics as soon as possible. Other factors associated with improved survival were younger age, non-pulmonary infection as the cause of sepsis, and no previous history of antibiotic treatment within 3 months. Further studies are needed to confirm if patients with these characteristics might benefit from the early administration of antibiotics. One interesting factor associated with improved outcome was the recognition of sepsis by the treating physician in the emergency room. This may also be a surrogate marker of patients’ disease severity because clinicians might be more inclined to give a diagnosis of sepsis to patients who are severely ill compared to just labeling them according to the site of infection. It would be interesting to identify if better education of emergency physicians on the recognition and treatment of sepsis might lead to better outcomes in patients with sepsis [27].
One of the strengths of our study is that biases associated with observational studies were reduced as much as possible. Patients who did not receive antibiotics or who did not receive appropriate antibiotics were excluded because the objective study was to examine the impact of early administration of appropriate antibiotic treatment on patient outcomes. In addition, the results were adjusted for all confounders thought to influence the outcome. Moreover, landmark analysis was performed as a sensitivity analysis to adjust for survivor treatment selection bias.
Potential limitations should be acknowledged to fully appreciate the results of our study. First, as this study was conducted only in patients from 19 centers in the Republic of Korea, the results might not be generalizable to different regions. All participating centers were university-affiliated with many tertiary referral centers. Second, although this study included more than 3,000 patients, it may have been too small to decipher small but important differences in specific subgroups. Third, this study included only patients who were diagnosed with sepsis at presentation to the emergency room. Thus, the results may not be generalizable to patients with sepsis in the hospital.