Clinical death and the measurement of stressed vascular volume.
OBJECTIVE
To measure stressed vascular volume in humans and to review the concepts of stressed and unstressed vascular volume.


METHODS
Observational study during surgical procedure.


METHODS
Operating room at a university hospital.


METHODS
Five patients undergoing hypothermic circulatory arrest for surgery on major vessels.


METHODS
We measured the volume that drained from the patient to the reservoir of the pump when the pump was turned off.


RESULTS
Stressed volume was 20.2+/-1.0 mL/kg, which is 30% of the predicted blood volume of these patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The amount of blood volume that determines vascular filling pressure is only about a quarter of the total predicted volume, which means that there is a large reserve of unstressed volume that can be recruited to maintain vascular filling pressure.
Magder
S
S
Division of Critical Care, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, PQ, Canada.
De Varennes
B
B
D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001810:Blood Volume; D006324:Heart Arrest, Induced; D006801:Humans; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000503:physiopathology; D018924:Vascular Capacitance; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures