Potential uses of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers in critical care medicine

Jacques Creteur1, Jean-Louis Vincent

  • 1Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.

Critical Care Clinics
|April 4, 2009
PubMed

Hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) were initially developed to provide an alternative to blood transfusion. With the realization that hemoglobin solutions not only are red blood cell substitutes but also have a number of additional properties, including hemodynamic effects related to their oncotic and nitric oxide-scavenging effects, the broader concept of "hemoglobin therapeutics" was born. Promising effects on oxygen transport and the microcirculation need to be confirmed, and the results of studies with newer, second-generation HBOCs are eagerly awaited. In the meantime, possible adverse effects need to be carefully evaluated before HBOCs can be widely used in the ICU, emergency room, or prehospital setting.

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