Is there a generally valid, minimum acceptable hemoglobin level?
Lundsgaard-Hansen P; Doran JE; Blauhut B University Department of Experimental Surgery, Swiss Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Berne. The different versions of autologous blood transfusion have rekindled interest in a generally valid ‘minimum acceptable hemoglobin concentration’ of patients around or below 10 g Hb/dl. The adequate Hb concentration capable of covering the oxygen demands of the body depends on several variables measurable at the bedside: oxygen consumption VO2, arterial oxygen tension paO2, body temperature, arterial and mixed venous pH, and cardiac output CO as the most important compensatory variable in anemia. Because of the strain imposed on the myocardium and the coronary circulation, anemia should not raise CO to more than twice the resting value, i.e. less than 10 l/min. Similarly, the mixed venous pO2, as an indicator of tissue oxygenation, should not fall below 35 mm Hg. With these two restrictions, we studied the relationships of the above-mentioned paramet
