Pharmacologic Agents in Shock

Abstract

In recent years there has been increasing emphasis and interest in the use of drugs in the treatment of shock. A wide divergence of views exists as to the best method of treating shock, but this is characteristic in clinical medicine of any disease in which the pathophysiology is poorly understood and none of the available forms of therapy is fully satisfactory. It must be emphasized that any drug therapy in shock is secondary to adequate replacement of intravascular volume deficits with colloid and crystalloid solution, correction of hypoxemia with respiratory support, adequate surgical drainage and antibiotics in sepsis, and repair of acid-base and electrolyte abnormalities which exist. Indeed, the combined experience of the Walter Reed shock unit and the surgical research team in Vietnam with several hundred cases of shock has shown that the great majority of these cases represent solely a decreased effective circulating blood volume and respond well to adequate volume administration only.