The need for sophisticated component therapy has resulted in improved techniques for obtaining concentrates of platelets and granulocytes. The use of single donors as a source for these products is advisable to avoid multiple sensitizations. A method for obtaining large quantities of platelets has been established rather easily. Obtaining concentrated granulocytes represents a greater problem o...

Editor—Delayed graft function (DGF) after transplan-tation of cadaver kidneys is associated with poorer subsequent graft survival. 1 Fluid management during the donor operation can significantly modify the risk of DGF. Thus, in a blinded randomized trial of 69 kidney transplants from brain-dead donors, 2 volume loading with a mean of 2100 ml hydroxyethyl starch (HES) increased the incidence of ...

FLUIDS ARE A CORE ELEMENT IN the resuscitation of critically ill patients and the relative superiority and safety of different resuscitation solutions has been the focus of considerable debate. Crystalloid solutions are inexpensive and readily available, while colloid solutions may minimize resuscitation volumes, and may sustain intravascular volume for longer durations. Conflicting results fro...

BACKGROUND Naturally occurring gastrointestinal disease is an important cause of acute hypoproteinemia in adult horses and hydroxyethyl starch colloid fluid treatment is a component of supportive care in these cases to improve plasma volume and maintain colloid osmotic pressure (COP). The objectives of the present study were to compare 2 formulations of high molecular weight hydroxyethyl starch...

Introduction The Scandinavian Starch for Severe Sepsis/Septic Shock (6S) trial [1] showed increased mortality in patients with severe sepsis resuscitated with hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.42 (HES) vs. Ringer’s acetate. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are, however, not fully elucidated. The endothelium may be important for the effects of fluid therapy, and the different fluids may impa...

BACKGROUND The most common side effect of epidural or spinal anesthesia is hypotension with functional hypovolemia prompting fluid infusions or administration of vasopressors. Short-term studies (20 min) in patients undergoing lumbar epidural anesthesia suggest that plasma volume may increase when hypotension is present, which may have implications for the choice of treatment of hypotension. Ho...

OBJECTIVES To determine whether a starch solution for volume resuscitation in a flow-based protocol improves circulatory status better than a crystalloid solution, as defined by the need for catecholamines in patients the morning after cardiac surgery, and whether this can be performed without increased morbidity. DESIGN Concealed, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS Tw...