[Gastric tonometry. Use in critically ill patients]

Gastric tonometry is a simple, minimally invasive method for measuring the oxygenation of the gastric mucosa. The present monitoring of patients in the ICU is by global measurements. A clinically usable method for monitoring at tissue level is presented. Securing the oxygenation of the gastrointestinal tract seems to be very important in the efforts to secure a sufficient global oxygenation. A review and evaluation of the literature concerning gastric tonometry in intensive care medicine is presented. History, method and potential errors are described. At the moment the numbers of studies being done on gastric tonometry are rapidly increasing.