Permissive Hypotension – Are Fluids Truly your Best Friend?
Remember in EMT school when you learned a blood pressure of 120/80 was the target goal for all trauma patients? The “Golden Rule” treatment was MAST pants, 2 large bore IVs with fluids wide open and lots of diesel. Recent studies have found that there is some benefit to allowing specific patients to experience some degree of hypotension in certain settings. Does the Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) on my monitor really matter to me? The current trend, in ambulances and emergency rooms, is to limit fluid resuscitation, at least until hemorrhage is controlled. Let’s discuss why our trauma patients are being managed drier than we have in past times.