Demographics and Infection Sources in Coding-Defined Sepsis at a Romanian County Emergency Hospital: A Retrospective Single-Center Study

Background: Sepsis is one of the major causes of hospital morbidity and mortality, and its epidemiology varies with local patient populations.Descriptive data from Romanian county hospitals remain limited.We have described the demographic profile, infection sources, and hospital service distribution of patients with coding-defined sepsis at a Romanian county emergency hospital over a full calendar year.Methods: This was a retrospective, single-center study at the "Sf.Apostol Andrei" Emergency County Clinical Hospital, Constanța, Romania.Using the hospital electronic discharge registry (Hipocrate OPIS Externari), discharge records were filtered by infectious-disease diagnostic category and individually reviewed by clinicians, yielding 1,147 records of patients presenting to the emergency department with infection-related diagnoses during the 2025 calendar year.The study included patients with sepsis as their primary diagnosis (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) A40-A41).We recorded and deidentified age, sex, discharge service, primary infection source, and length of stay.The analysis is primarily descriptive.We excluded toxic shock syndrome and other specified infections.Results: Of 1,147 infection-related discharge records reviewed, 129 (11.2% of infection-related records; 0.39% of all 33,250 emergency department admissions during the study period) carried a principal discharge diagnosis of coding-defined sepsis (ICD-10 A40 or A41).The cohort was predominantly adult (115/129, 89.1%); among adults, the mean age was 60.2 years (standard deviation (SD), 16.7), while the combined mean age, including 14 pediatric patients, was 54.3 years (SD, 23.2).Of the 129 patients, 82 (63.6%) were male and 45 (34.9%) were female patients, and sex was indeterminate in two (1.6%).General surgery (36%) and urology (32%) were the most frequent discharge services.The leading infection source was urinary (41%), followed by abdominal (26%) and skin and soft tissue (16%).Median length of stay was seven days (interquartile range, 4-14 days; mean 10.0 days; n = 126 of 129).Conclusions: Over a full calendar year at this Romanian county clinical emergency hospital, sepsis predominantly affected older patients managed by general surgery and urology, with urinary and abdominal sources dominating.These descriptive regional data add to the limited hospital-based descriptive evidence on sepsis in Romania.