ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of terlipressin for septic shock.Methods A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled pilot study was carried out in the general ICU of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from June 1st 2015 to May 31st 2016.The septic shock patients with a mean arterial pressure below 65 mmHg despite adequate volume resuscitation were enrolled.Patients were randomized (random number) to give continuous infusions of either terlipressin[0.6-2.6 μg/(kg·h)] or norepinephrine(7-30 μg/min).Open label norepinephrine or other catecholamines were additionally infused if the mean arterial pressure failed to reach 65 mmHg.Treatment was continued until shock corrected,death or withdrawn from this study.Correcting rate of shock was the primary end point,the secondary end points included open labeled norepinephrine requirements,the 28 d survival rate and adverse events.The quantitative data of the two groups were compared by t test or Wilcoxon rank sum test.The enumeration data were compared by chi square test or Fisher exact probability method,and the survival data were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method.Results A total of 28 patients were enrolled.The full analysis set was 28,the per-protocol set was 25,and the safety set was 28.The key demographics and baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups(P＞0.05).The results for the per-protocol set were followed up.The correcting rate of shock between the two groups were similar at the end of treatment[81.82％(9/11)vs.57.14％(8/14),P=0.190].The open label norepinephrine requirements of the trial group and control group for the 0,6,12,24,48 h time point were 0.661,0.921,1.583,1.241,2.143,1.371,1.071,1.261,0.370,1.001 μg/(kg·min),respectively with no significant difference(P＞0.05).The 28 d survival rate of the trial group and control group were 63.64％(7/11)and 50.00％(7/14) respectively with no statistical significance(P＞0.05).There was no significant difference in 28 d survival analyzed using Kaplan-Meier plot between two groups(P=0.470).There were two patients with ischemia of fingers,one patient with hyponatraemia and one patient with ischemia of intestine accompanied by hyponatraemia occurred after treatment with terlipressin,and one patient with isehemia of fingers occurred after treatment with norepinephrine.The incidence of adverse event for the trial group and control group were 30.77％(4/13) and 6.67％(1/15) with no significant difference(P=0.122).Conclusions Terlipressin is an effective agent for treating septic shock.The total adverse event rate of terlipressin was similar to that ofnorepinephrine.