ROC trials update on prehospital hypertonic saline resuscitation in the aftermath of the US-Canadian trials

The objectives of this review are to assess the current state of hypertonic saline as a prehospital resuscitation fluid in hypotensive trauma patients, particularly after the 3 major Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium trauma trials in the US and Canada were halted due to futility. Hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury are the leading causes of death in both military and civilian populations. Prehospital fluid resuscitation remains controversial in civilian trauma, but small-volume resuscitation with hypertonic fluids is of utility in military scenarios with prolonged or delayed evacuation times. A large body of pre-clinical and clinical literature has accumulated over the past 30 years on the hemodynamic and, most recently, the anti-inflammatory properties of hypertonic saline, alone or with dextran-70. This review assesses the current state of hypertonic fluid resuscitation in the aftermath of the failed Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium trials.

Influence of asymptomatic pneumonia on the response to hemorrhage and resuscitation in swine

INTRODUCTION: Investigation of resuscitation fluids in our swine hemorrhage model revealed moderate to severe chronic pneumonia in five swine at necropsy. Our veterinary staff suggested that we perform a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from these animals. We compared the data to that of ten healthy swine to determine the physiologic consequences of the added stress on our hemorrhage/resuscitation model. METHODS: Anesthetized, immature female swine (40 ± 5 kg) were instrumented for determining arterial and venous pressures, cardiac output and urine production. A controlled hemorrhage of 20 ml/kg over 4 min 40 sec was followed at 30 min by a second hemorrhage of 8 ml/kg and resuscitation with 1.5 ml/kg/min of LR solutions to achieve and maintain systolic blood pressure at 80 ± 5 mmHg for 3.5 hrs. Chemistries and arterial and venous blood gasses were determined from periodic blood samples along with hemodynamic variables. RESULTS: There were significant decreases in survival, urine output, cardiac output and oxygen delivery at 60 min and O2 consumption at 120 min in the pneumonia group compared to the non-pneumonia group. There were no differences in other metabolic or hemodynamic data between the groups. CONCLUSION: Although pneumonia had little influence on pulmonary gas exchange, it influenced cardiac output, urine output and survival compared to healthy swine, suggesting a decrease in the physiologic reserve. These data may be relevant to patients with subclinical infection who are stressed by hemorrhage and may explain in part why some similarly injured patients require more resuscitation efforts than others.