Sepsis is a syndrome with a variable presentation and severity. Although common definitions were designed to define a group of patients with a similar clinical condition, highly variable outcomes have been reported. 1-4 Accurate data on mortality are important for allocation of resources, benchmarking, evaluation of interventions and research. Recent studies have reported continuously decreasing hospital mortality in patients with severe sepsis. 5-9 Particularly, Kaukonen et al revealed in a carefully performed binational study a substantial decrease