Acute renal failure is a common and serious complication in critically ill hospitalized patients. Indeed, the mortality of acute renal failure in patients treated in intensive care units has remained greater than 50%, despite improvements in renal replacement therapy and aggressive supportive care ( 1 Brivet F.G Kleinknecht D.J Loirat P Landais P.J Acute renal failure in intensive care units—causes, outcome, and prognostic factors of hospital mortality a prospective, multicenter study. French Study Group on Acute Renal Failure. Crit Care Med. 1996; 24: 192-198 Crossref PubMed Scopus (745) Google Scholar , 2 Groeneveld A.B.J Tra D.D Van der Meulen J Acute renal failure in the medical intensive care unit predisposing, complicating factors and outcome. Nephron. 1991; 59: 602-610 Crossref PubMed Scopus (260) Google Scholar ). As low-dose dopamine (0.5 to 3 μg/kg/minute) may have several potential benefits for patients with oliguria or established acute renal failure, it has become the standard of care for preventing or ameliorating acute renal failure. However, low-dose dopamine has not been demonstrated to improve the outcome of these patients. Furthermore, the widespread use of low-dose dopamine continues despite editorials and reviews urging its discontinuation because of its lack of efficacy and potential toxicity ( 3 Cottee D.B Saul W.P Is renal dose dopamine protective or therapeutic?. No. Crit Care Clin. 1996; 12: 687-695 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar , 4 Denton M.D Chertow G.M Brady H.R “Renal-dose” dopamine for the treatment of acute renal failure scientific rationale, experimental studies and clinical trials. Kidney Int. 1998; 49: 4-14 Google Scholar , 5 Denton R Slater R Just how benign is renal dopamine?. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 1997; 14: 347-349 Crossref PubMed Scopus (10) Google Scholar , 6 Dugger B Peripheral dopamine infusions are they worth the risk of infiltration?. J Intraven Nurs. 1997; 20: 95-99 PubMed Google Scholar , 7 Girbes A.R Smit A.J Use of dopamine in the ICU. Hope, hype, belief and facts. Clin Exp Hypertens. 1997; 19: 191-199 Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar , 8 Perdue P.W Balser J.R Lipsett P.A Breslow M.J “Renal dose” dopamine in surgical patients dogma or science?. Ann Surg. 1998; 227: 470-473 Crossref PubMed Scopus (45) Google Scholar , 9 Szerlip H.M Renal-dose dopamine fact and fiction. Ann Intern Med. 1991; 115: 153-154 Crossref PubMed Scopus (55) Google Scholar , 10 Thompson B.T Cockrill B.A Renal-dose dopamine a siren song?. Lancet. 1994; 344: 7-8 Abstract PubMed Scopus (103) Google Scholar , 11 Vincent J.L Renal effects of dopamine can our dream ever come true?. Crit Care Med. 1994; 22: 5-6 Crossref PubMed Scopus (20) Google Scholar , 12 Marik P.E Mohedin M The contrasting effects of dopamine and norepinephrine on systemic and splanchnic oxygen utilization in hyperdynamic sepsis. JAMA. 1994; 272: 1354-1357 Crossref PubMed Scopus (318) Google Scholar ).