Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Jun 2014
ReviewRespiratory variations in the arterial pressure during mechanical ventilation reflect volume status and fluid responsiveness.
Optimal fluid management is one of the main challenges in the care of the critically ill. However, the physiological parameters that are commonly monitored and used to guide fluid management are often inadequate and even misleading. From 1987 to 1989 we published four experimental studies which described a method for predicting the response of the cardiac output to fluid administration during mechanical ventilation. ⋯ The clinical usefulness of these 'dynamic' parameters is limited by many confounding factors, the recognition of which is absolutely necessary for their proper use. With more than 20 years of hindsight we believe that our early studies helped pave the way for the recognition that fluid administration should ideally be preceded by the assessment of "fluid responsiveness". The introduction of dynamic parameters into clinical practice can therefore be viewed as a significant step towards a more rational approach to fluid management.