[New aspects of shock therapy with volume expanders (author's transl)]

For successful primary treatment of hemorrhagic shock the infusion of volume expanders is a ""conditio sine qua non''. Of the original possibilities for selection, Ringer's lactated injection can no longer be recommended for the compensation of intravascular loss in the light of more recent pathophysiological knowledge. Opposite to this, gelatin, dextran, hydroxyethyl starch, and albumin solutions are available as the mainstay of an adequate volume expansion. The danger of anaphylactoid side effects is to be estimated as about equal in all 4 groups of substances. Seen from the point of view of replacement function and of rheological and pharmacological properties, the higher molecular dextrans may still be considered the method of choice for shock therapy.