Refractory septic shock: our pragmatic approach

Despite timely intervention, there exists a small subgroup of patients with septic shock who develop progressive multi-organ failure. Seemingly refractory to conventional therapy, they exhibit a very high mortality. Such patients are often poorly represented in large clinical trials. Consequently, good evidence for effective treatment strategies is lacking. In this article, we describe a pragmatic, multi-faceted approach to managing patients with refractory septic shock based on our experience of toxin-mediated sepsis in a specialist referral centre. Many components of this strategy are inexpensive and widely accessible, and so may offer an opportunity to improve outcomes in these critically ill patients.