RT Book, Section
A1 Marshall, John P.
A1 Rollstin, Amber
A1 Chiu, William
A1 Chiu, William C.
A2 Farcy, David A.
A2 Chiu, William C.
A2 Flaxman, Alex
A2 Marshall, John P.
SR Print(0)
ID 55811729
T1 Chapter 16. Vasopressors and Inotropes
T2 Critical Care Emergency Medicine
YR 2012
FD 2012
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-162824-2
LK accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=55811729
RD 2024/04/24
AB In  a  shock  state  tissue,  perfusion  is  compromised  causing  hypoperfusion  to  organs,  cellular  hypoxia,  and  metabolic  disorder  resulting  in  cellular  injury.  Injury  to  the  organs  is  mainly  due  to  the  duration  of  the  hypoperfusion  and  the  speed  with  which  the  etiology  can  be  treated  and  the  shock  state  can  be  reversed.  When  patients  are  hemodynamically  unstable,  an  important  and  potentially  life-saving  intervention  is  the  use  of  vasoactive  therapies  to  restore  appropriate  tissue  perfusion  by  increasing  blood  flow  and  thereby  increasing  oxygenation.  Vasoactive  agents  can  be  categorized  by  their  activity  and  are  often  divided  into  two  types:  vasopressors  and  inotropes.  The  term  vasopressor  refers  to  a  class  of  drugs  that  cause  vasoconstriction.  Typically,  increasing  vasoconstriction  leads  to  an  increase  in  systemic  vascular  resistance  (SVR),  which  leads  to  an  increase  in  blood  pressure.  The  term  inotrope  refers  to  a  class  of  drugs  that  increase  the  strength  of  cardiac  contraction.  Increasing  the  strength  of  cardiac  contractions  will  increase  the  stroke  volume  (SV).  By  increasing  SV,  the  intent  is  to  increase  the  cardiac  output  (CO)  and  therefore  increase  blood  pressure.