Water metabolism after cardiac operations involving a Gibbon-type pump-oxygenator. II. Benign forms of water loss

Each of 21 patients was noted to have a low concentration of water in the serum immediately after whole-body perfusion. This indicated a loss of water either by the patient or the pump-oxygenator. Investigation suggested that the patient, and not the pump-oxygenator, was the source of water loss. Two of the 21 patients had a profuse, short-lived solute diuresis in the immediate postperfusion period. These phenomena are apparently benign and they require no specific treatment.