does it fundamentally differ from gram-negative bacterial sepsis?
Opal SM; Cohen J Brown University School of Medicine, Povidence, RI, USA. Steven_Opal@brown.edu OBJECTIVE: To review the basic differences between gram-positive and gram-negative sepsis and to assess the effect of these differences on current and future therapeutic strategies for sepsis. DESIGN: Literature review of the past 30 yrs of laboratory and clinical reports that analyze the microbial aspects of sepsis and the immunologic response to systemic infection. RESULTS: The increasing prevalence of sepsis from gram-positive bacterial pathogens necessitates reevaluation of many of the basic assumptions about the molecular pathogenesis of septic shock. It has been assumed that the initiation of the systemic inflammatory response with activation of the proinflammatory cytokine networks and other mediators results in a similar pathophysiologic process, regardless of the causative microbic pathogen. Yet, there is increasing experimental evidence that fundamental differences exist in the hos
