Clinical death and the measurement of stressed vascular volume

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To measure stressed vascular volume in humans and to review the concepts of stressed and unstressed vascular volume. DESIGN: Observational study during surgical procedure. SETTING: Operating room at a university hospital. PATIENTS: Five patients undergoing hypothermic circulatory arrest for surgery on major vessels. INTERVENTION: We measured the volume that drained from the patient to the reservoir of the pump when the pump was turned off. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Stressed volume was 20.2+/-1.0 mL/kg, which is 30% of the predicted blood volume of these patients. CONCLUSION: 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.