Five RCTs (N = 833) were included in the review.
The ITT analysis found that, after adjustment for other variables including age and fluid volume, there was no statistically significant difference in 28-day mortality between patients treated with dopexamine and control (OR 0.78, 95% CI: 0.31, 1.99). Analysis of the effect of dopexamine dose found that patients treated with low doses (up to 1 μg/kg/min) had statistically significantly lower 28-day mortality than controls (OR 0.50, 95% CI: 0.29, 0.88, p = 0.016), but that there was no significant difference between high dose dopexamine and control groups.
Dopexamine was associated with a statistically significantly shorter hospital stay than control treatments (HR 0.85, 95% CI: 0.73, 0.91, p = 0.03). The duration was significantly shorter for low dose dopexamine (HR 0.75, 95% CI: 0.64, 0.88, p = 0.0005). There was no significant difference for high doses compared to control.
The per protocol analyses did not produce significantly different results. Results of subgroup analysis were also reported.