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Septic shock, characterised by severe haemodynamic failure, remains a significant challenge associated with 30% to 40% hospital mortality, even though important therapeutic advances have been made over the past decades. In addition to fluid resuscitation, vasopressors are the cornerstone of haemodynamic management in patients with septic shock.

Vasopressor therapy aims at correcting vascular tone depression and then at improving organ perfusion pressure. Norepinephrine/noradrenaline (NE) remains the most commonly used vasopressor and is recommended as the first-line agent by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) experts. As a strong α-adrenergic agonist, NE increases blood pressure primarily through its vasoconstrictive properties with little effect on heart rate.

Dobutamine is a synthetic catecholamine with activity at alpha and beta-adrenoceptors and is primarily used as an inotropic agent for the short-term treatment of heart failure. Inotropic drugs allow a change in cardiac contractility to increase cardiac output and improve systemic haemodynamics.

This webinar is organised by the ESICM Cardiovascular Dynamics Section.

Learning Outcomes

• Discuss the use of vasopressors other than norepinephrine/noradrenaline in haemodynamic management.
• Discuss the use of inotropes other than dobutamine for haemodynamic management.

Topics & experts

“Vasopressors: beyond noradrenaline”
Mervyn SINGER
University College London (UK). 

“Inotropes: beyond dobutamine”
Benjamin CHOUSTERMAN
Hôpital Lariboisière-Fernand-Widal, AP-HP, Paris (FR).  

Moderators

Nadia AISSAOUI
Hopital Européen Georges Pompidou, AP-HP, Paris (FR).