Disseminated intravascular coagulation and related syndromes: a clinical review.

Current concepts of the cause, pathophysiologic mechanisms, diagnosis, and management of acute and chronic DIC have been discussed. Considerable attention has been devoted to interrelationships that have remained confusing. Only by clearly understanding these pathophysiologic interrelationships can the clinician and laboratorian appreciate the divergent and wide clinical spectrum of often confusing clinical and laboratory findings in patients with DIC. Many of the therapeutic decisions to be made in these patients remain controversial and will remain so until more series of patients are published with respect to specific therapeutic modalities and survival patterns. Many syndromes that remain organ specific share common pathophysiologic properties with DIC but are identified as an independent disease entity, such as HUS, adult shock lung syndrome, eclampsia, and many other isolated organ-specific disorders. Many of these similar disorders, some systemic and some organ specific or multiorgan specific, are listed in Table 36.