BACKGROUND Fluid therapy is the first important step in patients with signs of shock but assessment of the volume status is difficult and invasive measurements are not readily available in the emergency department. We have investigated whether the respiratory variation in diameter of the inferior vena cava is a reliable parameter to predict fluid responsiveness in spontaneous breathing emergenc...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Among adult emergency department (ED) patients undergoing central venous catheterization, we determine whether a greater than or equal to 50% decrease in inferior vena cava diameter is associated with a central venous pressure of less than 8 mm Hg. METHODS Adult patients undergoing central venous catheterization were enrolled in a prospective, observational study. Inferior ven...

OBJECTIVE We investigated whether combining the caval index, assessment of the global contractility of the heart and measurement of stroke volume with Noninvasive Cardiac Output Monitoring (NICOM) can aid in fluid management in the emergency department (ED) in patients with sepsis. SETTING A prospective observational single-centre pilot study in a tertiary care centre. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY...

OBJECTIVES The objective was to determine whether serial bedside visual estimates of left ventricular systolic function (LVF) and respiratory variation of the inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter would agree with quantitative measurements of LVF and caval index in hypotensive emergency department (ED) patients during fluid challenges. The authors hypothesized that there would be moderate inter-rat...

BACKGROUND Heart-lung interactions are used to evaluate fluid responsiveness in mechanically ventilated patients, but these indices may be influenced by ventilatory conditions. The authors evaluated the impact of respiratory rate (RR) on indices of fluid responsiveness in mechanically ventilated patients, hypothesizing that pulse pressure variation and respiratory variation in aortic flow would...

A case of superior vena cava syndrome caused by a primary intimal sarcoma of the superior vena cava is described. The known causes of superior vena caval obstruction are discussed, together with the difficulties in identifying the underlying lesion. The possibility of a primary superior vena caval neoplasm as a cause of superior vena caval obstruction should be considered in patients presenting...

Superior vena caval syndrome is usually due to malignant disease, however, benign cases do occur. Two patients with superior vena caval syndrome due to substernal goitre are reported, and the use of phleboscintigraphy and/or vena caval phlebography are advocated. A review of potentially helpful diagnostic procedures is given.

A 49-year-old woman had a vena caval filters inserted having suffered multiple pulmonary emboli and a large upper gastrointestinal bleed. She re-presented five years later with loin pain and obstructive uropathy. She was found to have a right pelvi-ureteric obstruction due to inferior vena caval wall perforation from the vena caval filter.