[Preoperative evaluation and risk estimation in thoracic surgery]. / Präoperative Evaluation und Risikoeinschätzung in der Thoraxchirurgie.

Preoperative evaluation of patients undergoing lung resection remains an interdisciplinary challenge. Despite substantial progress in anesthesiology, intensive care medicine and surgery, mortality of patients undergoing pneumonectomy remains high at 5-9%. Guidelines were developed to identify patients with an increased perioperative risk for morbidity and mortality. These guidelines are focused around the forced expiratory capacity (FEV) measured by spirometry, following further investigations in patients with limited FEV(1). Extended testing includes measurement of the diffusion capacity, calculation of postoperative predicted values of lung function and spiroergometry to determine maximal oxygen uptake. In this article the methods to measure parameters of lung function and gas exchange are described and evaluated in the context of the current guidelines.

Effect of hypertonic saline/dextran on post-stenotic myocardial perfusion, metabolism, and function during resuscitation from hemorrhagic shock in anesthetized pigs.

Resuscitation using small volumes of hypertonic saline solutions normalizes cardiac output without fully restoring arterial pressure. This study compared the efficacy of either 7.2% saline/10% dextran 60 (HSDex) or the identical sodium load of normal saline (NS) to improve regional myocardial blood flow (MBF), contractile function, and oxygen metabolism in the presence of a critical coronary stenosis. Fourteen anesthetized, open-chest pigs (25 +/- 3.6 kg) were instrumented to assess left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) flow, post-stenotic oxygen, and lactate metabolism, regional myocardial segment shortening (SS, sonomicrometry), and MBF (radioactive microspheres). After implementation of a critical LAD-stenosis, shock was induced by hemorrhage (mean arterial pressure (MAP) 45-50 mmHg for 75 min). Resuscitation was started by infusion (2 min) of either HSDex (n = 7,10% of blood loss) or NS (n = 7, 80% of blood loss); 30 min later 6% dextran 60 (10% of blood loss) was administered in both groups. The LAD-stenosis did not affect myocardial metabolism, SS, or MBF at rest. After hemorrhage, MBF remained unchanged from baseline in non-stenotic but decreased by 53% in post-stenotic myocardium (p < .05). The endo-epicardial flow ratio fell below 1.0 in both areas. SS decreased by 10-15% only in post-stenotic myocardium (p < .05). Resuscitation with both HSDex and NS restored cardiac index (CI) but not MAP. MBF increased above baseline values with either solution in non-stenotic while it remained at shock levels in post-stenotic myocardium, where ischemia persisted as evidenced by lactate production and depressed SS. Neither in non-stenotic nor in post-stenotic myocardium was the epi-endocardial flow ratio normalized upon resuscitation with HSDex or NS. We conclude that in the presence of a flow-limiting coronary stenosis, initial fluid resuscitation with both HSDex and the identical sodium load of NS failed to restore perfusion pressure, redistributed MBF in favor of normally perfused myocardium, and did not reverse ischemia in post-stenotic myocardium.

Myocardial blood flow heterogeneity in shock and small-volume resuscitation in pigs with coronary stenosis.

Myocardial blood flow heterogeneity in shock and small-volume resuscitation in pigs with coronary stenosis. J. Appl. Physiol. 83(6): 1832-1841, 1997.-We analyzed the effects of shock and small-volume resuscitation in the presence of coronary stenosis on fractal dimension (D) and spatial correlation (SC) of regional myocardial perfusion. Hemorrhagic shock was induced and maintained for 1 h. Pigs were resuscitated with hypertonic saline-dextran 60 [HSDex, 10% of shed blood volume (SBV)] or normal saline (NS; 80% of SBV). Therapy was continued after 30 min with dextran (10% SBV). At baseline, D was 1.39 +/- 0.06 (mean +/- SE; HSDex group) and 1.34 +/- 0.04 (NS group). SC was 0.26 +/- 0.07 (HSDex) and 0.26 +/- 0.04 (NS). Left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis changed neither D nor SC. Shock significantly reduced D (i.e., homogenized perfusion): 1.26 +/- 0.06 (HSDex) and 1.23 +/- 0.05 (NS). SC was increased: 0.41 +/- 0.1 (HSDex) and 0.48 +/- 0.07 (NS). Fluid therapy with HSDex further decreased D to 1.22 +/- 0.05, whereas NS did not change D. SC was increased by both HSDex (0.56 +/- 0.1) and NS (0.53 +/- 0.06). At 1 h after resuscitation, SC was constant in both groups, and D was reduced only in the NS group (1.18 +/- 0.02). We conclude that hemorrhagic shock homogenized regional myocardial perfusion in coronary stenosis and that fluid therapy failed to restore this.