Society guideline links: Sepsis in children and adults

Introduction — 

This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

Links to related guidelines are provided separately:

●(See "Society guideline links: Aspergillosis".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Bacterial meningitis in adults".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Bacterial meningitis in infants and children".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Candidiasis".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Febrile young infants (younger than 90 days of age)".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Fever in children".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Intra-abdominal infections in adults".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Meningococcal disease".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Prevention of meningococcal disease".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Management of Staphylococcus aureus infection".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Neutropenic fever in children with cancer".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Osteomyelitis and prosthetic joint infection in adults".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Sepsis in neonates".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Shock in children".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Treatment and prevention of infective endocarditis".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Deep sternal wound infection".)

International

●Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM): Guidelines on adult critical care ultrasonography, focused update 2024 (published 2025)

●SCCM: Guidelines on use of corticosteroids in sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and community-acquired pneumonia, focused update (2024)

•SCCM and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM): Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) in critically ill patients – Part II, 2017 (published 2018)

•SCCM and ESICM: Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) in critically ill patients – Part I (2017)

●SCCM: International consensus criteria for pediatric sepsis and septic shock (2024)

●Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC): International guidelines for management of sepsis and septic shock (2021)

●SSC: International guidelines for the management of septic shock and sepsis-associated organ dysfunction in children (2020)

●World Health Organization (WHO): Guideline on paediatric emergency triage, assessment, and treatment – Care of critically ill children, update (2016)

Canada

●Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS): Practice point on diagnosis and management of sepsis in the paediatric patient (2020)

United States

●Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Sepsis – For health care providers

●Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM): Consensus statement – Consensus bundle on sepsis in obstetric care (2023)

●American College of Radiology (ACR): ACR Appropriateness Criteria on sepsis (2023)

●American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP): A consensus-based task force report on early care of adults with suspected sepsis in the emergency department and out-of-hospital environment (2021)

●American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM): Clinical practice statement – Is lactate measurement in the emergency department valuable as a predictor of poor outcomes in adult patients with sepsis? (2018)

●AAEM: Clinical practice statement – What is the preferred resuscitation fluid for patients with sepsis and septic shock? (2017)

●American College of Critical Care Medicine (ACCM): Clinical practice parameters for hemodynamic support of pediatric and neonatal septic shock (2017)

●AAEM: Clinical practice statement – Does early goal-directed therapy decrease mortality compared with standard care in patients with septic shock? (2016)

Europe

●European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM): Clinical practice guideline on fluid therapy in adult critically ill patients – Part 1: The choice of resuscitation fluids (2024)

●Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and ESICM: Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) in critically ill patients – Part II, 2017 (published 2018)

●SCCM and ESICM: Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) in critically ill patients – Part I (2017)

United Kingdom

●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Guideline on suspected sepsis – Recognition, diagnosis, and early management (2016, updated 2024)

●Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG): Green-top guideline for the identification and management of maternal sepsis during and following pregnancy, second edition (2024)

●BMJ Rapid Recommendations: Corticosteroid therapy for sepsis – A clinical practice guideline (2018)

●United Kingdom (UK) joint specialist societies guideline on the diagnosis and management of acute meningitis and meningococcal sepsis in immunocompetent adults (2016)

●NICE: Clinical guideline on neutropenic sepsis – Prevention and management in people with cancer (2012)

Australia–New Zealand

●Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG): Green-top guideline on identification and management of maternal sepsis during and following pregnancy (2024)

●Society of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand (SOMANZ): Position statement for the investigation and management of sepsis in pregnancy (2023)

Japan

●[In Japanese] Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine (JSICM) and Japanese Association for Acute Medicine (JAAM): The Japanese clinical practice guidelines for management of sepsis and septic shock (J-SSCG) (2024)