Table 4.

Morbidity data for patients receiving inotrope or standard hospital practice

Variable	Adrenaline group (n=46)	Dopexamine group (n=46)	Control group (n=46)
Respiratory:
Prolonged weaning	1	3	1
Adult respiratory distress syndrome	1	1	4
Pleural effusion	3	3	2
Secondary ventilation	6	4	8
Sputum retention	4	1	5
Cardiovascular:
Myocardial infarction	4	2	3
New arrhythmia	8	7	11
Cardiac arrest	1	1	3
Pulmonary embolus	1	1	2
Cerebrovascular accident	0	0	1
Transient ischaemic attack	1	0	0
Cardiac failure	14	4	12
Gastrointestinal:
Infarction of gastrointestinal tract	1	0	1
Gastrointestinal haemorrhage	0	0	4
Renal or metabolic: Acute renal failure	2	0	3
Haematological or immune: Coagulopathy	2	1	4
Infection:
Bacteraemia	2	0	2
Sepsis syndrome	2	0	1
Septic shock	0	2	0
Respiratory sepsis	8	2	7
Urinary sepsis	0	1	5
Abdominal sepsis	2	0	2
Wound sepsis	3	0	3
Line sepsis	0	1	0
Other sepsis	5	0	2
Surgical:
Anastomotic breakdown	0	0	3
Deep haemorrhage	2	2	4
Wound haemorrhage	3	0	2
Total	87	44	109
No of patients with complications	24	14	28
Proportion of patients	0.52	0.30	0.61
Differences in proportions of patients with complications (95% CI):
Dopexamine v control	0.30 (0.11 to 0.50)
Dopexamine v adrenaline	0.21 (0.02 to 0.41)
Adrenaline v control	0.09 (−0.11 to 0.28)
Actual morbidity (%)	52	30	61
Predicted morbidity (%)	54	61	57
Standardised morbidity ratio (95% CI)	0.96 (0.62 to 1.44)	0.50 (0.27 to 0.84)	1.07 (0.71 to 1.54)