Ibuprofen in canine endotoxin shock

the physiologic alterations of endotoxin shock has been well established with the aid of prostaglandin synthe-tase inhibitors. Our study was designed to investigate the potential of ibuprofen, a highly specific cycloox-ygenase inhibitor, to reverse the hemodynamic and acid base abnormalities of canine endotoxin shock. Mean blood pressure fell to 49.8±6.6 mm Hg in dogs given endotoxin by 5 min after injection, and remained below 83 mm Hg for the duration of the 120-min ob-servation period. In animals given endotoxin followed by ibuprofen, a similar initial drop of systemic blood pressure was seen, but it subsequently recovered to 150.2±4.1 mm Hg by 120 min (P < 0.001). Cardiac index increased in animals given ibuprofen (2.3±0.28 liter/m2 per min) compared with animals given en-dotoxin alone (1.0±0.09 liter/M2 per min) by termi-nation of the experiment. The arterial pH dropped in endotoxin treated animals to 7.18±0.03 by 120 min. Ibuprofen prevented the acidosis, the final pH in ibu-profen and endotoxin treated animals measuring 7.36±0.01. We conclude that ibuprofen protects against the hypotension, acidosis, and depression of cardiac index of canine endotoxin shock