Water metabolism after cardiac operations involving a Gibbon-type pump-oxygenator. II. Benign forms of water loss.

Daily water metabolism of 21 patients was studied for 3 days after intracardiac surgery and whole-body perfusion. The average obligatory water losses of these patients were approximatelv 500, 750, and 750 ml. per 1\I3 of body surface per day on the first, second, and third postoperative day, respectively. A simple system, which combines knowledge of the estimated postoperative water requirement with the known daily change in body weight, was devised to manage accurately water metabolism after intracardiac surgery.