Abstract: AIM: To investigate the impact of dopamine and norepinephrine on sublingual microcirculation of the septic shock.METHODS: Thirty-four patients with septic shock,were randomly divided into two groups. One group accepted dopamine (the dopamine group, DA)and the other accepted norepinephrine(the norepinephrine group, NE) to maintain mean blood pressure between 65 mm Hg to 75 mm Hg in one hour, and then the medicine dose of both groups was added to maintain mean blood pressure between 75 mm Hg to 85 mm Hg.Sublingual microcirculation was evaluated by sidestream dark field (SDF) imaging before and after the therapy. The 28-day mortality and the number of new arrhythmia was recorded.RESULTS: The 28 days mortality of the DA group and NE group was 47.06% and 52.94%, which had no significant difference (P>0.05). The new arrhythmia of the two groups had no significant difference(P>0.05). Compared with the base line, PVD after dopamine or norepinephrine therapy was higher both in DA group and NE group(P＜0.05),but the Lac,ScvO₂,PPV,MFI had no difference(P>0.05). The Lac,ScvO₂,PVD,PPV,MFI of the two different MAP levels had no significant difference in both groups(P>0.05).CONCLUSION: Both dopamine and norepinephrine can improve the MAP and the sublingual microcirculatory dysfunction in septic shock, and these impacts do not change with the dose of dopamine and norepinephrine or the level of MAP.

Key words: Septic shock, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Microcirculation