INTRODUCTION The Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) is frequently used to mechanically support the heart. There is evidence that IABP improves microvascular flow during cardiogenic shock but its influence on the human microcirculation in patients deemed ready for discontinuing IABP support has not yet been studied. Therefore we used sidestream dark field imaging (SDF) to test our hypothesis that ...

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the anesthesia methods by observing hemodynamic changes, oxygen supply and demand balance in order to provide the reference for the Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (OPCABG) anesthesia management level during OPCABG. Methods: Thirty patients scheduled for elective OPCABG were premedicated with intramuscular scopolamine 0.3 mg/kg and m...

BACKGROUND Hypothermia is associated with poor outcome in trauma patients; however, hemorrhagic shock (HS) model with anesthetized swine was different from that of clinical reality. To identify the effects of environmental hypothermia on HS, we investigated hemodynamics and oxygen dynamics in an unanesthetized swine model of HS under simulating hypothermia environment. METHODS Totally 16 Bama...

CONTEXT Recent upsurge in referral of patients with compromised left ventricular (LV) function for cardiac surgery has led to an increasing use inotropes to achieve improvement of tissue perfusion in the perioperative period. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To compare the hemodynamic effects and immediate postoperative outcomes with levosimendan and dobutamine in patients with moderate to severe LV dysfu...

Methodologies have been developed to evaluate the heart rate (HR) chaotic dynamics, differentiating normality of chronic and acute disease and the evolution between these states; other dynamic variables of system on ICU have shown a chaotic behavior. An induction from 8 patients was realized, five discharged alive from ICU and 3 cases of mortality, defining sets and subsets, as well as operatio...

Objective To summarize the effect of mild hypothermia on function of the organs in patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Methods The patients were randomly divided into two groups, northermia group (n=71) and hypothermia group (n=89). We immediately began cooling the hypothermia group when test results showed multiple organ dysfunction syndrom...

Early experience with continuous monitoring of jugular venous oxygen saturation (SjvO2) suggested that this technology might allow early identification of global cerebral ischaemia in patients with severe head injury. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between episodes of jugular venous desaturation and neurological outcome. One hundred and sixteen severely head-in...

INTRODUCTION The role of systemic hemodynamics in the pathogenesis of septic acute kidney injury (AKI) has received little attention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between systemic hemodynamics and new or persistent of AKI in severe sepsis. METHODS A retrospective study between 2006 and 2010 was performed in a surgical ICU in a teaching hospital. AKI was defined...

The monitoring of physiologic variables is an integral part of the diagnosis and management of the critically ill patient. Restoration of tissue perfusion and oxygen delivery is the ultimate goal for any state of circulatory collapse. Insight into a patient's intravascular volume status and cardiac performance, particularly in the early stages of shock, can help guide management and potentially...

BACKGROUND Sodium lactate has been shown to improve hemodynamics and avoid fluid overload. The objective of this study was to confirm a beneficial effect on fluid balance with sodium lactate infusion and to specify whether the advantage of lactate is related to a negative chloride balance, its particular metabolism, or simply its energy load. METHODS This was an interventional, randomized, op...