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(Journal Article) |
Intensive care medicine 36 (12): 2004-18 (2010)
The role of vasoactive agents in the resuscitation of microvascular perfusion and tissue oxygenation in critically ill patients.
E Christiaan Boerma
,
Can Ince
ABSTRACT
The clinical use of vasoactive drugs is not only intended to improve systemic hemodynamic variables, but ultimately to attenuate derangements in organ perfusion and oxygenation during shock. This review aims (1) to discuss basic physiology with respect to manipulating vascular tone and its effect on the microcirculation, and (2) to provide an overview of available clinical data on the relation between vasoactive drugs and organ perfusion, with specific attention paid to recent developments that have enabled direct in vivo observation of the microcirculation and concepts that have originated from it.