Septic Cardiomyopathy

• Cardiac dysfunction is common in patients with sepsis.
• Though mulitiple definitions exist, sepsis cardiomyopathy (SCM) is generally defined as an "acute syndrome of cardiac dysfunction that is unrelated to ischemia in patients with sepsis".
• Depending on the study, the incidence of SCM ranges anwywhere from 7% to 70%.
• Risk factors for SCM include:
  • Male
  • Younger age
  • High lactate at admission
  • History of heart failure
• The best approach to treating patients with SCM is to maximize your treatment of sepsis.
• Dobutamine is no longer routinely recommended for SCM based solely on measurements of ScvO2.

References

Beesley S, et al. Septic cardiomyopathy. Crit Care Med 2018. [epub ahead of print]