Hypotensive Resuscitation among Trauma Patients

Hemorrhagic shock is a principal cause of death among trauma patients within the first 24 hours after injury. Optimal fluid resuscitation strategies have been examined for nearly a century, more recently with several randomized controlled trials. Hypotensive resuscitation, also called permissive hypotension, is a resuscitation strategy that uses limited fluids and blood products during the early stages of treatment for hemorrhagic shock. A lower-than-normal blood pressure is maintained until operative control of the bleeding can occur. The randomized controlled trials examining restricted fluid resuscitation have demonstrated that aggressive fluid resuscitation in the prehospital and hospital setting leads to more complications than hypotensive resuscitation, with disparate findings on the survival benefit. Since the populations studied in each randomized controlled trial are slightly different, as is the timing of intervention and targeted vitals, there is still a need for a large, multicenter trial that can examine the benefit of hypotensive resuscitation in both blunt and penetrating trauma patients.