Early Versus Late Initiation of Hydrocortisone in Patients With Septic Shock: A Prospective Study

Introduction The optimal timing of corticosteroid initiation in septic shock patients is debatable. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines recommended adding hydrocortisone to septic shock patients who require a vasopressor with a dose of norepinephrine ≥ 0.25 mcg/kg/min for at least four hours. Nevertheless, the best time to initiate hydrocortisone remains uncertain. Objective Assessing the impact of early (≤3 hours) versus late (>3 hours) initiation of hydrocortisone in septic patients. Methodology We compared the outcomes of septic shock patients who received hydrocortisone within three hours versus those who started treatment after three hours. The inclusion criteria encompassed septic shock patients aged 18 or older who received at least one dose of hydrocortisone. Exclusion criteria included pregnancy, do-not-resuscitate orders, the absence of empirical intravenous antibiotics, recent corticosteroid use, recent cardiac arrest, and a history of adrenal insufficiency. Results Eighty-one patients were included (54% were males). The mean age was 59 years, and 56.8% of patients were in the early group. The time needed to discontinue vasopressors was 25 and 37 hours for the early and late groups, respectively (p = 0.009), and more patients achieved reversal of shock (35 vs. 24 patients) and had shorter ICU stays (17 days vs. 20 days). Conclusion Initiating hydrocortisone early, within three hours, reduced the time needed to discontinue vasopressors among the study population. However, both early and late initiation strategies yielded comparable outcomes in terms of ICU mortality, ICU length of stay, and shock reversal.