You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Commentary
The role of synthetic colloids for the volume resuscitation of critically ill adults
  1. Tom Williams,
  2. Robert Parker
  1. Department of Critical Care Medicine, Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, United Kingdom
  1. Correspondence to Dr Tom Williams, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Lower Lane, Liverpool L9 7AL, UK; tom.williams{at}aintree.nhs.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2012-201698

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    The effective management of critically ill patients should be a continuum stretching from the prehospital environment through the emergency department to the critical care unit. Fluid resuscitation to increase circulating volume is a core part of acute care to treat hypovolaemia, hypotension and shock. It has formed a key component of campaigns to improve patient outcomes.1

    Traditionally the fluid administered has been a crystalloid (0.9% saline or a ‘balanced’ fluid eg, Hartmann's solution), synthetic colloid (hydroxyethylstarch (HES) or gelatin) or rarely human albumin solution. Use of colloids varies across the world, starches are more common in Continental Europe, …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    • Guarantor Robert Parker acts as guarantor.