INCIDENCE AND PROBLEMS OF MULTIPLE-ORGAN-FAILURE SYNDROMES
The panelists for the discussion were C. James Carrico, MD, from Seattle; Jonathan Meakins, MD, DSc, FRCSC, FACS, from Montreal; Donald Fry, MD, from Cleveland; and Ronald V. Maier, MD, from Seattle.
Dr Carrico: Multiple-organ-failure (MOF) syndrome is a process that occurs following 7% to 22% of emergency operations and between 30% and 50% of operations for intra-abdominal sepsis; MOF syndrome carries a mortality that varies from 30% to 100% depending on the number of organs involved. Treatment usually involves support of the organ (system) function and control of sepsis.1,2 In developing a clinical description, we can use a classic description of respiratory failure from the late 1960s as a model. Rather than a single organ we need to describe the function of several systems and follow the changes through a series of stages, beginning with the patient who has recently experienced one