Splanchnic oxygen consumption is impaired during severe acute normovolemic anemia in anesthetized humans.

Background: In conscious humans, reduction in hemoglobin concentration to 5 g/dl did not produce inadequate systemic oxygenation. However, systemic measures of inadequate oxygenation may not be sufficiently sensitive to detect inadequate oxygenation in individual organs such as splanchnic organs. The authors tested the hypothesis that acute normovolemic anemia to hemoglobin less than 6.