SEPTICEMIA 153 



SEPTICEMIA 



We shall take up this condition from its pathological 

 standpoint first. The term septicemia literally means 

 poisoned blood. The term is used in a rather broad 

 sense, clinically. Speaking in a strictly pathological 

 sense a septicemia would only include those conditions 

 characterized by the presence of septic matter, or patho- 

 genic bacteria, in the blood stream. Cases in which the 

 morbid process is the result only of toxins in the blood 

 stream can not, strictly speaking, be termed cases of 

 septicemia. Furthermore, just at what moment or under 

 what conditions, an ordinary infection of a wound ceases 

 to be an ordinary infection and becomes a septicemia, is 

 a doubtful point. From the practitioner's standpoint a 

 septicemia is any serious or grave condition resulting 

 from the infection of the organism with pathogenic bac- 

 teria. When the infection is not severe enough to pro- 

 duce marked systemic disturbance the practitioner is 

 content to term it an ordinary infection. 



Clinically, for reasons bearing on the treatment of 

 the condition, a septicemia needs to be differentiated 

 chiefly from a pyemia. Pyemia makes its identity plain 

 by the presence of localized pus collections, which are 

 absent in eases of septicemia. A good definition for 

 septicemia would read somewhat like this : Septicemia is 

 an acute, febrile disturbance resulting from infection of 

 the organism, either through a wound or otherwise, with 

 pathogenic microorganisms. But, again from a clinical 

 standpoint, the term septicemia is reserved almost always 

 for systemic participation in wound infection of such a 

 degree that it creates a clinical entity. In other words, 

 whenever the systemic disturbance overshadows the local 

 or traumatic lesion, the term septicemia finds applica- 

 tion. The only differentiation to be made, and then from 



