[The war on (too many) fluids. New horizons in combat medicine]

In the coming years, our approach to the bleeding patient will have to change radically. The inevitable knowledge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan permits the prediction that conventional crystalloids will sooner or later disappear from volume replacement therapy. The dogma that fluids must always be given will be abandoned, to be replaced by the practice of careful and goal-directed resuscitation. In the near future, we would rely on designer fluids and sophisticated pharmacological agents to deliver personalized resuscitation based upon the specific needs of the individual patient.