Please see Bibliography of References for a list of abstracts, manuscripts and posters.
Puyana JC, Pinsky MR. Crit Care. 2007;11(1):116.
Comment on: Podbregar M, Mozina H. Skeletal muscle oxygen saturation does not estimate mixed venous oxygen saturation in patients with severe left heart failure and additional severe sepsis or septic shock. Crit Care. 2007;11(1):R6.
Tissue hypoxia is a common end product of circulatory shock and a primary target for resuscitation efforts. In this issue Podbregar and Mozina show that thenar tissue O2 saturation (StO2) and mixed venous O2 saturation (SvO2) co-vary in patients in left ventricular failure, but in patients with sepsis StO2 was higher than SvO2. Although StO2 may co-vary with SvO2 they have different determinants such that after shock StO2 may increase well before SvO2 as a result of increased O2 demands to repay O2 debt incurred during hypoperfusion. Thus, the use of StO2 alone to define the endpoint of resuscitation may be misleading.