IN THE EMERGENCY department, intensive care unit, and primary care setting, dermatological conditions rank as one of the most common disease presentations. It is often a challenge for physicians to differentiate routine skin ailments from more serious, life-threatening conditions that require immediate intervention. This chapter highlights some dermatologic emergencies that plague physicians daily and initially may present with cutaneous manifestations. Septic shock and toxic shock syndrome (TSS) are potentially fatal medical emergencies that manifest with dermatologic signs, making a good understanding of dermatology a crucial step in rapid and early diagnosis of these two emergencies. As part of a clinical continuum, the terms bacteremia, sepsis, and septic shock have for many years been confused due to the inaccurate usage of terminology associated with such infections. In 1991, the American College of Chest Physicians and the Society of Critical Care Medicine convened a Consensus Conference to standardize terminology and provide a framework for physicians to accurately identify the body's systemic response to infection. These quantifiable definitions work on a clinical continuum established by clinical and laboratory findings. Unfortunately, to date there is no single definitive census for the standard of care and defined illness; the 1992 consensus is commonly accepted and reputable for defining disease for this topic and will be used as a guideline for this chapter (Table 10.1).