The Relationship Between Oxygen Uptake and a Toxic Factor in Septic Shock

Abstract

When one speaks about the toxic factor in clinical shock, one is generally referring to a shock state refractory to all present methods of therapy. I would like to talk about two aspects of the toxic factor. The first is related to those patients who die in shock due to sepsis, despite all present methods of management. The second aspect concerns an animal study using dogs rendered septic by ligation of the cecum. Interestingly enough, these animals show a toxic factor which may be related to refractory septic shock in human beings.