What Are the Causes of Septic Shock?

Septic shock is when blood pressure drops so low that it is at the life-threatening stage. The causes–a combination of infection, inflammation and immune system functions gone awry–are as serious as the symptoms experienced from it (low blood pressure, mental confusion and dizziness, to name three). What’s more, septic shock doesn’t just affect one part of the body; it can affect any part of it.

1. Symptoms

   • According to the Mayo Clinic website, sepsis symptoms include rapid heart rate, rapid breathing and low body temperature–or a fever. If the sepsis condition worsens, these symptoms serve as early precursors to severe sepsis (also known as septic shock). Symptoms that indicate sepsis has progressed to septic shock status are: a noticeable decrease in urine output; a skin rash, or skin that is flushed or bleeding; diarrhea; and confusion. Dizziness due to low blood pressure will follow.

   Causes

   • The basic cause of septic shock is when a germ of some sort (or bacteria) enters the body due to any number of reasons (illness, surgery or infection). Once inside the body, the germ is attacked by the immune system. Using inflammation as its weapon and internal fence, the body usually sequesters the germ to a small area as it repairs damaged body tissues. However, when the body produces too many chemical signals due to the germ’s presence, all of the body inevitably becomes affected due to inflammation occurring all over the body–and this happens not just at the target site (the germ’s location). This overload of inflammation causes the body to produce blood clots all over the body to fight perceived infections and injury instead of only at the injury or infection site. The body is then unable to also destroy the unneeded blood clots before they can create septic shock symptoms.

   Blood Clots

   • Because every organ in our body, including our brain, is dependent upon oxygen-rich blood, having too many blood clots in our body works against us in a dramatic way. The clots prohibit the fast flow of this vital nutrient to organs, in spite of our heart’s attempt to work even harder under the circumstances to get it there. Therefore, this results in an extreme drop in blood pressure.

   Blood Pressure

   • When the body’s blood pressure drops too low, we are unable to think as clearly. Our brain is deprived of the oxygenated blood it needs in order to work properly. This leads to the septic shock symptom of confusion and dizziness.

   Body Failure

   • When the body starts experiencing a drop in blood pressure, it begins to try to protect its ability to maintain life-sustaining activities. Therefore, it reduces any activity that can be reduced without threat to life. One example of this is urine output. Another example is a low body temperature. But when the body has exhausted its ability to reduce all activity except life-sustaining activity–and the condition is still present–it goes into septic shock as a last resort.

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