Early and late histamine release induced by albumin, hetastarch and polygeline: some unexpected findings.

Objective: The perioperative use of colloidal plasma substitutes is still under discussion. We therefore conducted a prospective randomised study with three commonly used plasma substitutes to examine their histamine releasing effects in 21 volunteers. Material or subjects: 21 male volunteers were enrolled in this prospective, randomised, controlled clinical study. Endpoints were the incidence of early and late histamine release and the time course of the release kinetics. Normovolemic hemodilution technique was used with hydroxyethyl starch (n = 6), human albumin (n = 6) and polygeline (n = 9). Measurement and observation period was 240 min after the start of the plasma substitute infusion…