The findings indicate that also during hemodilution monitoring of central venous blood oxygen may be as useful as monitoring of mixed venous blood oxygen.

Anesthetized pigs with extremely low hemoglobin levels (one third of normal) showed poor tolerance to blood loss >10 mL/kg. A decreasing arterial blood pressure, a decreasing oxygen saturation in the venous blood, and an increase in arterial blood lactate concentration were useful indicators of blood loss.

Systemic and myocardial lactate production occurred at similar systemic oxygen delivery rates in hemodiluted and nonhemodiluted animals. Mixed venous oxygen saturation may be a less reliable indicator of inadequate oxygen delivery during hemodilution.