Cardiogenic shock - Back to the basics.

The authors present a review paper that addresses the cardiac component of shock and its definition. We reviewed the concepts of oxygen delivery and consumption and approached the evaluation of these complex patients through measures that obviated the need for pulmonary artery catheters or PICCO monitoring. Hence, this review will briefly explain the concepts of oxygen delivery, oxygen consumption, oxygen extraction ratio, mixed venous saturation, lactate, mixed venous-to-arterial carbon dioxide (CO2) tension difference, and echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac output. We aimed to clarify such concepts and provide a systematic approach to evaluate this population and surrogates for cardiac output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]