Volume replacement with a balanced hydroxyethyl starch (HES) preparation in cardiac surgery patients

Balanced fluids appear to be have advantages over unbalanced fluids for correcting hypovolemia. The effects of a new balanced hydroxyethyl starch (HES) were studied in cardiac surgery patients.

Prospective, randomized, unblinded study.

Clinical study in a single cardiac surgery institution.

Sixty patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Patients received either a balanced 6% HES 130/0.4 plus a balanced crystalloid (n = 30) or an unbalanced HES-in-saline plus saline (n = 30) to keep cardiac index >2.5 L/min/m(2).

Base excess (BE), kidney function, inflammatory response (interleukins-6, -10), endothelial activation (intercellular adhesion molecule-1 [ICAM]), and coagulation (thromboelastometry, whole blood aggregation) were measured after induction of anesthesia, after surgery and 5 hours later, and at the 1st and 2nd postoperative days; 2,950 +/- 530 mL of balanced and 3,050 +/- 560 mL of unbalanced HES were given. BE was reduced significantly in the unbalanced group (from 1.11 +/- 0.71 mmol/L to -5.11 +/- 0.48 mmol/L after surgery) and remained unchanged in the balanced group. Balanced volume replacement resulted in significantly lower IL-6, IL-10, and ICAM plasma concentrations and lower urine concentrations of kidney-specific proteins than in the unbalanced group. After surgery, thromboelastometry data and platelet function were changed significantly in both groups; 5 hours thereafter they were significantly changed only in the unbalanced group.

A plasma-adapted HES preparation in addition to a balanced crystalloid resulted in significantly less decline in BE, less increase in concentrations of kidney-specific proteins, less inflammatory response and endothelial damage, and fewer changes in hemostasis compared with an unbalanced fluid strategy.