ICU management of the patient with intra-abdominal hypertension: what to do, when and to whom?

INTRODUCTION: Intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) and abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) are increasingly recognised to be a contributing cause of organ dysfunction and mortality in critically ill patients. The number of publications describing and researching this phenomenon is increasing exponentially but there are still very limited data about treatment and outcome.
METHODS: This review will focus on the available literature from the last years. A Medline and PubMed search was performed using the search terms "abdominal compartment syndrome" and "treatment".
RESULTS: This search yielded 437 references, most of which were not relevant to the subject of this paper. The remaining abstracts were screened and selected on the basis of relevance, methodology and number of cases. Full text articles of the selected abstracts were used to supplement the authors' expert opinion and experience. The abdomino-thoracic transmission of pressure has direct clinical consequences on the cardiovascular, respiratory and central nervous systems in terms of monitoring and management. These interactions are discussed and treatment recommendations are made. IAH-induced renal dysfunction is addressed as a separate issue. Finally, an overview of non-invasive measures to decrease IAP is given.
CONCLUSION: This paper describes current insights on management of IAP induced organ dysfunction and lists the most widely used and published non-invasive techniques to decrease IAP with their limitations and pitfalls.