Vasoactive-Inotropic Score: Evolution, Clinical Utility, and Pitfalls

Inotropes and vasopressors frequently are administered in critically ill and perioperative patients. However, clinical practice is highly variable across clinicians and institutions. The inotropic score and its upgrade “vasoactive-inotropic score” (VIS) can be used to objectively quantify the degree of hemodynamic support. Several studies demonstrated a correlation between high VIS and poor outcome. Furthermore, VIS can help compare different clinical and research experiences. Several recently developed scores include VIS in their model, although they still require independent validation. Conversely, VIS has several pitfalls, including the fact that a universally recognized version that includes all commonly used vasoactive drugs does not exist. In this review, the authors summarize all the VIS, VIS-related, and VIS-validating manuscripts, and suggest a new updated version of VIS that also includes terlipressin, methylene blue, and angiotensin II. Inotropes and vasopressors frequently are administered in critically ill and perioperative patients. However, clinical practice is highly variable across clinicians and institutions. The inotropic score and its upgrade “vasoactive-inotropic score” (VIS) can be used to objectively quantify the degree of hemodynamic support. Several studies demonstrated a correlation between high VIS and poor outcome. Furthermore, VIS can help compare different clinical and research experiences. Several recently developed scores include VIS in their model, although they still require independent validation. Conversely, VIS has several pitfalls, including the fact that a universally recognized version that includes all commonly used vasoactive drugs does not exist. In this review, the authors summarize all the VIS, VIS-related, and VIS-validating manuscripts, and suggest a new updated version of VIS that also includes terlipressin, methylene blue, and angiotensin II.