Supernormal Oxygen Delivery for Elderly Surgical Patients

Elderly patients with poor cardiopulmonary reserve tend to suffer higher risk and develop more complications following major surgery. Quite a few researches have shown the benefits of goal-directed therapy (GDT) using fluid loading or inotropic agents or both to improve outcome during major surgery. However there is concern that inotropic therapy for a supernormal oxygen delivery (DO2I) may lead to an increased incidence of myocardial ischemia. Even though the meta-analysis has stated that DO2I strategy could possibly reduce the incidence of cardiac complication than stroke volume optimization strategy, there are very few evidence available in the literature regarding the effect on myocardial ischemia in surgical patients, especially in non-cardiac surgical patients. This study is undertaken to test the hypothesis that an intraoperative DO2I optimization result in a decreased myocardial ischemia in the elderly high-risk surgical patients.