Hypotensive resuscitation

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Hypotensive resuscitation in the trauma setting can be defined as deliberately allowing blood pressure to remain below normal until any active bleeding has been controlled. The dangers of aggressive fluid resuscitation in trauma were recognised as long ago as the First World War, in the intervening time, aggressive fluid resuscitation has become a mainstay of trauma management. More recently this trend of aggressive fluid resuscitation for trauma management seems to be reversing. Aggressive fluid resuscitation in trauma is based on animal studies from the 1950s and 1960s. These studies used models of controlled haemorrhage rather than uncontrolled haemorrhage. More recent studies using models of uncontrolled haemorrhage suggest an improved outcome with hypotensive resuscitation. Should there be a potential for uncontrolled haemorrhage a permissive hypotensive resuscitation strategy should be pursued until the haemorrhage has been controlled, but in certain types of trauma including blunt trauma and brain trauma the data is unclear as to the best fluid resuscitation strategy.