Abstract: Objective To observe the effect of Shen-Mai injection and ulinastatin injection (UTI) on microcirculation in patients with severe sepsis.Methods Using random number table, 30 patients with severe sepsis were divided into Shen-Mai injection group and UTI group, 15 cases in each group. Following SSC2008 guide, on the basis of conventional therapy, Shen-mai injection and UTI treatment were applied to observe the changes of sublingual microcirculation in patients before and after treatment by the sidestream-dark-field technique: total vascular density (TVD), perfusion vascular density (PVD), proportion of perfused vessels (PPV), microvascular flow index (MFI) were measured, and the APACHEⅡ score was recorded 72 h after entering into the group and the number of days in ICU and 28 day mortality were compared.Results 1. The sublingual microcirculation in patients of Shen-Mai injection group had significant changes after 6h, PPV increased significantly (P<0.05). 2. The sublingual microcirculation in patients of UTI group had significant changes after 6h, PPV increased significantly (P<0.05). 3. Shen-Mai injection and UTI have a certain improvement of the prognosis of patients. Conclusion Both Shen-Mai injection and UTI could improve the sublingual microcirculation in patients with early severe sepsis; monitoring sublingual microcirculation can be used as an important index for assessing the prognosis of patients.

Key words: severe sepsis, sublingual microcirculation, Shen-Mai, ulinastatin