• Lei Huang and Wanchun Tang.
• The Institute of Critical Care Medicine, Palm Springs, California 92262, USA.
• Curr Opin Crit Care. 2004 Jun 1; 10 (3): 183-7.

Purpose Of ReviewIn settings of cardiac arrest, reestablishing vital organ perfusion plays an important role in initial CPR. As a pharmacologic intervention, vasopressor agents aim to improve aortic diastolic pressure and, consequently, coronary and cerebral perfusion pressures.Recent FindingsHistorically, adrenergic agonists such as epinephrine have been suggested for routine use in CPR. However, epinephrine's efficacy is controversial because of its unfavorable inotropic and chronotropic action. This has prompted research into the use of alternative pressor agents with more promising hemodynamic features; these include selective alpha 2-adrenergic agonists and other nonadrenergic vasoconstrictors such as vasopressin.SummaryIn this article, the main traditional and novel adrenergic and nonadrenergic vasopressor drugs are reviewed.

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