[Preliminary experiences with the treatment of shock in horses with a plasma expander from a starch base].

The research investigates the application of a colloidal plasma expander—HAES Steril 10%—in the treatment of shock in horses. It indicates that HAES induced a significant reduction in packed cell volume and total protein concentration with no observed incompatibility reactions.

HAES Steril 10% and its use in Veterinary Medicine

• The paper starts by introducing HAES Steril 10%, a plasma expander which is not commonly used in veterinary medicine. A plasma expander is a type of solution used to increase the blood volume in animals, which can be beneficial in the treatment of conditions like shock.
• The authors utilized HAES in clinical cases for managing shock in horses. They also used it in comparative hypervolemic hemodilution studies, directly comparing HAES’s effectiveness with a standard treatment—lactated Ringer’s solution. Hypervolemic hemodilution is a process where the blood’s constituents, such as red blood cells and proteins, are diluted by adding a large volume of fluid.

Impacts of HAES on Horses Under Treatment

• One of the major findings in this study was that injecting a HAES volume equivalent to 10% of a horse’s estimated blood volume resulted in a substantial reduction in packed cell volume (PCV)—the volume percentage of red blood cells in blood. Additionally, it was found that HAES administration also resulted in a significant drop in total protein concentration in the blood.
• No adverse effects or incompatibility reactions were identified as a result of using the plasma expander, which suggests HAES could be safe for use in equine medicine.

Additional Considerations and Future Work

• Another important point made by the authors is that HAES has been known to improve microcirculation in humans. While not explicitly tested in this research, they suggest that continuous studies might potentially confirm a similar effect in horses, thereby presenting HAES as a feasible and effective treatment alternative.

In summary, this research offers preliminary yet promising results on the use of HAES as a plasma expander for the treatment of shock in horses.