Researchers in Spain found that guiding IV fluid and vasoactive drug administration with esophageal doppler monitoring significantly reduced complications after major surgery, News Medical reports. Here are six takeaways.
1. Deltex specializes in Esophageal Doppler Monitoring, which helps physicians administer the right quantity of fluids and drugs at the right time by measuring the rate of blood flow from the heart.
2. Deltex's fluid management and cardiac output monitoring system was evaluated in a randomized, controlled trial. Researchers evaluated 420 low- to moderate-risk adult patients scheduled for elective abdominal surgery.
3. Patients were randomly assigned to either a control group, or a group in which anesthetists administered fluids, inotropes and vasopressors based on Deltex's ODM system's monitoring of stroke volume, mean arterial pressure and cardiac index.
4. Patients in the group with treatment guided by Deltex's system experienced 75 percent fewer complications. Researchers observed reductions between 75 percent and 100 percent in major complications such as pneumonia and superficial or deep surgical site infection.
5. Average hospital stays for patients in the ODM-guided group were two days shorter than those of the control group.
6. "Reducing overall risk of complication by half, and even more dramatic reduction in specific complications such as acute kidney injury, points to the significant potential of ODM technology if adopted as standard of care in this lower risk group," said lead researcher and professor Jose María Calvo Vecino, the chief of anesthesia and intensive care at the University of Salamanca, Spain.
