Fluid vs. air for semicontinuous intra-abdominal pressure measurements using a compliance catheter.

摘要

Sir: The use of a balloon-tipped esophageal catheter (Compliance catheter, International Medical Systems, Zutphen, The Netherlands), with the balloon inserted in the stomach may be an interesting alternative for the transvesical route for measurement of the intra-abdominal pressure (IAP), as the gastric route has proved to be a reliable method to measure IAP [1, 2, 3, 3]. There are no data whether the balloon should befilled with water or air, or what volume that should be used. Therefore we carried out a laboratory experiment to determine which medium and volume is best suited.A glass container was filled with water, and two balloon catheters, plus a catheter for direct pressure measurement and one for the pressure input line, were introduced into the container. The pressure transducers (DTX, Becton Dickinson Benelux, Erembodegem, Belgium) were connected to a Draeger/Siemens 9000XL monitor (Draeger Siemens, Wemmel, Belgium). The external pressure was composed of a static pressure generation by means of a fluid filled syringe, superimposed with a sinusoidal dynamic pressure wave of 0.20 Hz at 10 mmHg amplitude by means of a pressure generator to simulate the variation observed in mechanically ventilated patients with a respiration rate of 12/min. One balloon was filled with water and one with air, starting with 0 ml and continuing to 10 ml at 2.5-ml increments.