The Effects on Increasing Cardiac Output with Adrenaline or Isoprenaline on Arterial Haemoglobin Oxygen Saturation and Shunt during One-Lung Ventilation

Theoretically, if the cardiac output were increased in the presence of a given intrapulmonary shunt, the arterial haemoglobin oxygen saturation (SaO2) should improve as the venous oxygen extraction per ml of blood decreases. To test this hypothesis, eight pigs were subjected to one-lung ventilation and adrenaline and isoprenaline infusions used to increase the cardiac output. The mixed venous oxygen, shunt fraction and oxygen consumption were measured. With both adrenaline and isoprenaline, although there was a small rise in mixed venous oxygen content, there was a fall in SaO2. With adrenaline, the mean shunt rose from 48% to 65%, the mean oxygen consumption rose from 126 ml/min to 134 ml/min and the mean SaO2 fell from 86.9% to 82.5%. With isoprenaline, the mean shunt rose from 45% to 59%, the mean oxygen consumption rose from 121 ml/min to 137 ml/min and the mean SaO2 fell from 89.5% to 84.7%. It is concluded that potential improvement in SaO2, which might occur from a catecholamine-induced increase in mixed venous oxygen content during one-lung ventilation, is more than offset by increased shunting and oxygen consumption which reduce SaO2.