Effect of Antibiotics on Hemodynamics of Hypovolemic Septic Shock

Abstract

Hemodynamic disturbances in septic shock produced by intraperitoneal injection of a fecal suspension are much the same as those in prolonged hemorrhagic shock. Therapy with plasma in septic shock sufficient to prevent or correct a severe plasma volume deficiency does not ameliorate the basic disturbances of the shock process, and death results. Prophylactic antibiotic therapy without plasma therapy does not prevent the development of severe hypovolemia, or other hemodynamic disturbances characteristic of severe shock, but death is prevented. In septic shock, as in hemorrhagic shock, the hemodynamic disturbances due to the hypovolemia are not per se necessarily lethal, and they are much better tolerated if bacterial activity can be suppressed before a lethal amount of toxin has been produced.