Some aspects of treatment in shock

Abstract

Drug treatment in shock should be evaluated against the background of our general concept and classification of shock (Table 1). A meeting such as this provides an overwhelming tide of detailed analyses relating firstly to nomenclature and classification, secondly to aetiological factors, thirdly to those pathophysiological mechanisms which accompany or follow each other in a time order and combination that certainly varies depending on the different aetiological types of shock involved but which ultimately produce irreversibility, and fourthly to the immediate causes of death. When the tide has ebbed away, our previous concept is changed in detail and emphasis but not in general outline.