The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 73, 559-562, Copyright © 1977 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
The prediction of postoperative potassium excretion after cardiopulmonary bypass
J Patrick and S Sivapragasam
Potassium excretion following cardiopulmonary bypass has been studied in 11
patients. After an initial period of 4 to 5 hours, potassium excretion was
found to be directly related to urine flow provided diuretics had not been
administered. Triamterene altered the slope of the regression line so that,
for any given urine flow rate, less potassium was excreted. A simple
program for postoperative potassium therapy is described.