Saturday October 13, 2007
Dopamine dosing on pump !


Beauty of Critical Care Medicine is in details


In contrast to dosing of other vasopressors, it is important to dose Dopamine on "ideal" body weight instead of actual body weight.

Unexpected tachycardia or hypertension may occur due to overdosing, if actual body weight instead of "ideal" body weight punched on pump. This is important to understand as in ICU it is very frequent to have high actual body weight due to fluid resuscitation. The right way to write dopamine dosing is like,

Start Dopamine drip with 2 mcg/kg/min of "Ideal" body weight and titrate as needed upto 20 mcg/kg/min. Call physician if heart rate more than 120 or Mean Blood Pressure more than 100.



Further recommended reading

1. Dopamine administration - Intensive Care Medicine , Volume 10, Number 5 / September, 1984
2. The ICU Book - 3rd edition, Paul L. Marino, Page 301