Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Dec 1981
Continuous monitoring of interstitial fluid potassium during hemorrhagic shock in dogs.
It appears that ISFET probes can reliably and continuously monitor IF K+ in vivo for intervals of at least several hours. The consistently observed increase in IF K+ in response to hemorrhage, a phenomenon invisible systemically, suggests that such probes may provide clinically valuable information regarding perfusion related events at the cellular level during onset of and resuscitation from hypoperfusion states. Precise correlation of ISFET signal to specific cellular dysfunction awaits investigation in which muscle cell membrane potential, muscle surface pH, and postexperiment cellular histology are studied concurrently.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 1981
Hydroxyethyl starch for resuscitation of patients with hypovolemia and shock.
The authors evaluated the effectiveness of 6% hydroxyethyl starch (hetastarch) solution for treatment of hypovolemia in 46 critically ill patients. Thirty-two of the patients were studied retrospectively and in 14 patients, cardiopulmonary variables were prospectively measured. A total of 29 patients were in shock secondary to hypovolemia (13), sepsis (13), or myocardial infarction (3). ⋯ Immediate survival was 90% in shock patients and 100% in nonshock patients, whereas hospital survival was 65.5% and 88%, respectively. The authors conclude that hetastarch is an effective fluid for resuscitation of hypovolemic patients. This synthetic colloid does not appear to adversely affect pulmonary function.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 1981
Correction factor for thermodilution determination of cardiac output in children.
The authors determined the correction factor (Ct) for three sizes of commonly available central venous catheters. These catheters are used as the injectate catheter when a 2.5 Fr transthoracic thermistor is used to determine cardiac output by thermodilution. The valves for Ct were highly reproducible. These determinations can be used conveniently in children to determine cardiac output by thermodilution.