Voluven®: Approved by the FDA for Treatment of Serious Blood Volume Loss, Post-Surgery

Filed in archive FDA Approvals , Treatment on December 29, 2007

The FDA has recently approved Voluven® for the treatment of serious blood volume loss following surgery.

Significant blood losses can cause a rapid drop in the volume of red blood cells and plasma circulating through the body.

This can lead to shock, which is potentially fatal.

Blood volume expanders are commonly administered to quickly restore some of the lost volume so that remaining red blood cells can continue to deliver needed oxygen to the body's tissues.

Severe loss of blood volume can happen during or after surgery. In both cases, loss of blood volume is dangerous.
Voluven® is an intravenous solution that prevents and treats a dangerous loss of blood volume.

Voluven contains a synthetic starch that does not dissolve in water.

It is made by linking individual starch molecules together and combining them with a salt solution, similar to the salt concentration typically found in blood.

Voluven expands the volume of blood plasma - the liquid portion of the blood - and thus draws fluid into small blood vessels known as capillaries.

Voluven® (6% hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.4 in 0.9% sodium chloride injection) is manufactured by Fresenius Kabi (Bad Homburg, Germany).

Find more details from the FDA News.