title: Monitoring of irrigating fluid absorption during transurethral prostatectomy. A study in anaesthetised patients using a 1% ethanol tag solution.
abstract: A simple, reliable method to detect absorption of irrigating fluid during transurethral prostatectomy is to tag irrigating fluids with 1% ethanol and monitor expired breath ethanol concentrations. This method correlated well (n = 0.79) with other existing methods of absorption monitoring in 20 anaesthetised patients. Ethanol (1%) tagging does not alter the optical quality of the irrigating fluid and is harmless to the patient. The technique is non-invasive, repeatable, cheap and gives instant results. It can be used in anaesthetised or awake patients and can detect absorption of as little as 100-150 ml in any 10-minute period.
authors.affiliation: Piteå General Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hultén
authors.forename: V J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Sarma
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hjertberg
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Palmquist
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000368:Aged; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D001944:Breath Tests; D000431:Ethanol; D006801:Humans; D007431:Intraoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative; D011468:Prostatectomy; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000601:surgery; D012964:Sodium / Q000097:blood; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014883:Water-Electrolyte Imbalance / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol; D012964:Sodium