Recruitment of sublingual microcirculation using handheld incident dark field imaging as a routine measurement tool during the postoperative de-escalation phase-a pilot study in post ICU cardiac surgery patients.

Cytocam-IDF imaging to monitor microcirculation as a daily parameter is feasible and could become a valuable tool to non-invasively assess the tissue oxygenation at the bedside. An increase in TVD and PVD (functional capillary density) indicated the recruitment of the sublingual microcirculation in patients with diuretic therapy. Future research is needed to prove the correlation between the recruitment of the sublingual microcirculation and the de-escalation phase of the fluid management.