New clinical criteria for septic shock: serum lactate level as new emerging vital sign

Sepsis is leading cause of acute hospital mortality and commonly results in multi-organ dysfunction secondary to culture-positive or negative infection. Septic shock is defined as unrecovered hypotension despite adequate fluid replacement in the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) Guidelines (1). Sepsis-induced arterial hypotension is defined as a systolic blood pressure (SBP) <90 mmHg or mean arterial pressure (MAP) <70 mmHg or a SBP decrease >40 mmHg or less than two standard deviations below normal for age in the absence of other causes of hypotension (1).