Oxygen transport and tissue oxygenation under moderate and extreme hemodilution during coronary bypass surgery

Oxygen transport and tissue oxygenation were investigated in twelve patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery under normovolemic moderate and extreme hemodilution. Moderate hemodilution, that was carried out after induction of anesthesia, decreased the mean hematocrit from 0.43 to 0.33. Concurrently, the cardiac index and the left ventricular filling pressure increased slightly whereas the systemic oxygen transport declined by 20%. This was associated with elevated oxygen extraction. The subcutaneous tissue oxygen tension underwent a transient increase during moderate hemodilution. During cardiopulmonary bypass and extreme hemodilution the mean hematocrit declined to 0.16. Simultaneously, the tissue PO2 decreased clearly reaching its minimum at the deepest hypothermia. After coming off bypass and reinfusion of the autologous blood the tissue PO2 approached the preoperative levels. In general, total body oxygen consumption changed parallelly with the tissue oxygen tension. Lactate concentration in the mixed venous blood increased in the beginning of the extracorporeal circulation and remained rather stationary thereafter. All patients recovered normally without any perioperative myocardial infarctions.