Abstract
There is no doubt that the basic goal in the treatment of sepsis is to regulate the source of infection, including removal of the infectious focus and to maintain the hemodynamics with fluid resuscitation and inotropic drugs. While hyperdynamic circulatory state is a characteristic profile in sepsis, both functional and structural deteriorations in heart develop even at the early stage. Aggressive fluid resuscitation and inotropic support to meet the increased oxygen demand in vital organs could be harmful to injured myocardium. On the contrary, in patients with chronic heart failure or ischemic heart disease, irrespective of the underlying mechanisms, cardioprotective therapy using β-blockers has been demonstrated to be highly beneficial for improving the outcome. Furthermore, in burn patients who show similar aspects of augmented metabolism and hyperdynamic circulatory state to patients with sepsis also, β-blocker therapy could be effective. In this review, we discuss the necessity of cardioprotective strategy and its possibility of β-blocker in sepsis.
