Administration of fluids in the battlefield is a major life-saving treatment. About 44 percent of all casualties who died in US combats suffered from exsanguinations as the main cause of death; among them, 19 percent died on the battlefield before reaching advanced medical care. The first step when treating a bleeding patient is controlling the bleeding. Yet, in the case of an internal bleeding it is not possible to stop the bleeding on field; this is the case of uncontrolled hemorrhage.
There are different parameters that determine the treatment with fluid therapy. These are the type of administrated fluid, timing of fluid administration, infusion rate and the determination of the endpoint of treatment.
There has been an extensive debate in the recent years on determining the best fluid regimen. Therefore, a mathematical model was developed to help determine optimal fluid regimen. The model considers the hemodynamic state, oxygen balance and consumption, and physiological control mechanisms during bleeding and fluid administration. To validate the model, a series of animal experiments was performed. The computer simulation followed successfully experimental data collected in five different experiments. Thus, it may now serve as an advanced tool for evaluating and analyzing effects of different fluids and optimize fluid regimen.
