Sepsis Watch
with Team BUGS
Prosthetics /
Sepsis
In medicine, a prosthesis, (from Ancient Greek prósthesis, "addition, application, attachment") is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part lost through trauma, disease, or congenital conditions. Prosthetic amputee rehabilitation is coordinated by an inter-disciplinary team of health care professionals including physiatrists and prosthetists.
Amputations occur in sepsis and may be limited to fingers or toes, but many times arms and legs are lost. To understand how this happens, I want you to remember what your finger looks like when you get a bad cut. The cut gets swollen, oozes fluids, is red and inflamed and develops tiny blood clots. This all occurs locally.
If your body over reacts as it does in sepsis, your entire body and blood vessels goes through the same process. Blood vessels throughout your body, swell, leak fluid and forms small clots. This clotting blocks oxygen to the extremities ( fingers, toes, arms and legs) and gangrene sets in as the tissue dies. Surgery needs to be done in an attempt to save your life and remove dead tissue.
