Angiotensin II for the emergency physician

Abstract

Refractory hypotension is one of the most common and difficult clinical problems faced by acute care clinicians, and it poses a particularly large problem to the emergency physician when a patient in undifferentiated shock arrives in the department. Angiotensin II (Ang-2) has been previously used as a vasopressor to combat shock; the feasibility of its clinical use has been reinvigorated after approval of a human synthetic formulation of the medication by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2017 and the European Medicines Agency in 2019. A thorough literature search was completed, and in this review, we discuss the discovery and development of Ang-2, its complex mechanisms of vasoconstriction, its potential adverse effects and its potential role in clinical practice for emergency physicians.

Keywords: clincial management; intensive care; resuscitation.