The goal of hyptensive anesthesia is the safe reduction of intraoperative blood loss, thus reducing transfusion risks.  Previous hypotensive technics had a narrow margin of safety in that cardiac output was usually reduced in proportion to the degree of induced hypotension. This is in contrast to the results of our study, in which Sodium Nitroprusside was used as the sole hypotensive agent. Ni...

BACKGROUND The endotracheal cardiac output monitor (ECOM) is a new device that uses an endotracheal tube with multiple electrodes to measure cardiac output (CO). It measures the changes in electrical impedance caused by pulsatile blood flow in the aorta. The system was tested for safety and efficacy in 10 swine. METHODS Swine (60-80 kg) were chronically instrumented with a transit time flow p...

Portapres derives continuous estimates of cardiac output from the peripheral pulse and has the potential to be an extremely valuable physiological and clinical tool. We assessed Portapres estimates of cardiac output in healthy subjects at rest, during maximal treadmill exercise ( n = 8) and during decreases caused by orthostatic stress ( n = 8). Comparison with a rebreathing method indicated th...

Float catheterisation of the pulmonary artery was described in The Lancet by Dr R D Bradley (as he then was) in 1964 at a time when invasive circulatory monitoring was almost non-existent outside cardiac surgical units, and ‘intensive care’ was a term barely in use. Cardiac catheterisation was laboratory based and required radiological control: management of acute circulatory crises relied on c...