ABSTRACT
Objective To apply electrical impedance tnmography that is a new evaluation ap-proach to monitor the development of retroperitoneal injury. We used retroperitoneal inject blood model in pigs to study the feasibility on monitoring retroperitoneal bleeding and to provide premise in theory and practice for clinical application. Methods Five pigs were used on the experiment. We insert a vessel into the retroperitoneal and inject blood to simulate retroperitoneal bleeding. Sixteen electrodes were atta-ched on the abdominal region circumference of pigs and used for electrical current injection and surface voltage measurement. Then the monitoring images were performed by electrical impedance tomography. Results The images of electrical impedance tomography retroperitoneal inject blood model of five pigs were clear, the minimal impedance scale was decreasing significantly as the bleeding volume increasing and the images were changed significantly too. The computerized tomography and the dissecting results confirmed the blood was limited in retroperitoneal. Conclusions The establishments of pigs retroper-itoneal inject blood model was successful. The images of electrical impedance tomography retroperitoneal inject blood model were clear with significant contrast. It's feasible to use electrical impedance tomography system to monitor the retroperitoneal bleeding. This technique may become a useful tool for monitoring ret-roperitoneal injury in intensive care patients.