Cardiovascular response estimated by ETCO2 after leg-raising test

Abstract

The perioperative administration of fluids in critically ill patients is of particular interest to the anaesthetist, as a reduction in mortality rates and the harmful systemic effects of volume has been demonstrated, as long as they are administered in the context of individualised goals.

The aim is to optimise cardiac output. It is therefore necessary to analyse each patient's situation individually, particularly important being the physiological basis, identification of the area of the Frank–Starling curve they are in and the correct clinical application of static and dynamic parameters offered by modern monitoring techniques; the dynamic being the ones that predict with the greatest accuracy.

We carried out a non-systematic review of the passive leg-raising test and its correlation with end-tidal carbon dioxide. This is an affordable dynamic parameter and is easy to determine in the operating theatre as it does not require invasive surgical instruments. It predicts the response to volume on the basis of the increase in cardiac output by identifying patients who are responders to volume according to their ventricular function curve.