Guiding Goal-Directed Therapy

Several studies have demonstrated that perioperative hemodynamic optimization (or “goal directed therapy”) using minimally invasive hemodynamic monitoring technologies has the ability to improve postoperative patients’ outcome with lower complication rates, shorter hospital lengths of stay, and lower cost of surgery. This specific concept of goal-directed therapy (GDT) uses perioperative cardiac output monitoring and manipulation of physiologic parameters (dynamic parameters of fluid responsiveness) to guide intravenous fluids and inotropic therapy with the goal of ensuring adequate tissue perfusion. Recently, the evidence related to the implementation of GDT strategies has been considered strong enough to allow for the creation of national recommendations in the UK, in France, and by the European Society of Anaesthesiology. The aims of the programs are to apply best practices to high-risk surgical patients and requires the participation of all clinicians involved in patients’ care. Considering the potential clinical and economic benefits of GDT protocols and the positive recommendations from influential scientific societies, more and more hospitals around the world have become interested in implementing hemodynamic optimization in their departments. This review provides the information about the evolution of hemodynamic monitoring from invasive to the more recent noninvasive devices, and how these devices can be used in the operating rooms through well-defined algorithms of GDT. © 2014, Springer Science + Business Media New York.