Guidelines for intensive care in cardiac surgery patients: Haemodynamic monitoring and cardio circulatory treatment - Guidelines of the German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine and the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

Haemodynamic monitoring and adequate volume-therapy, as well as the treatment with positive inotropic drugs and vasopressors are the basic principles of the postoperative intensive care treatment of patients after cardiothoracic surgery. The goal of these S3-guidelines is to evaluate the recommendations in regard to evidence-based medicine and to define therapy goals for monitoring and therapy. In context with the clinical situation the evaluation of the different haemodynamic parameters allows the development of a therapeutic concept and the definition of goal criteria to evaluate the effect of treatment. Up to now there are only guidelines for subareas of postoperative treatment of cardiothoracic surgical patients, like the use of a pulmonary artery catheter or the transesophageal echocardiography. The German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the German Society for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine made an approach to ensure and improve the quality of the postoperative intensive care medicine after cardio-thoracic surgery by the development of S3 consensus-based treatment guidelines. Goal of this guideline is to assess available monitoring methods and their risks as well as the differentiated therapy of volume-replacement, positive inotropic support and vasoactive drugs, the therapy with vasodilatators, inodilatators and Calzium-sensitizers and the use of intra-aortic ballon pumps. The guideline has been developed following the recommendations for the development of guidelines by the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF). The presented key messages of the guidelines were approved after two consensus meetings under the moderation of the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF).