Severe sepsis and septic shock is a life-threatening disease. It is combined with multi-organ failure. In the past decade, early goal directed therapy has been proposed as an effective treatment strategy for better outcome. Recent epidemiologic studies showed that the outcome of sepsis has been improved with the introduction of early goal directed therapy. However, it is unclear which elements of early goal directed therapy contributed to the better outcome. Recent prospective and randomized trials suggested that some elements of early goal directed therapy did not have any effect on the outcome benefit. In this paper, recent articles about early goal directed therapy will be reviewed and the effectiveness of individual elements of early goal directed therapy will be discussed.