HAEMODYNAMIC EFFECTS OF SQUATTING DURING REPOSE

Abstract

In an attempt to explain the tendency of severely incapacitated patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease to remain continuously in a squatting position while recumbent, measurements of the effect of squatting on systemic and pulmonary blood flow by the Fick principle were made on 13 squatters and 17 control subjects. All but 2 of 14 control subjects and 1 of the 8 squatters showed a higher systemic flow when squatting than when supine and this was associated for the most part with a rise in O2 consumption. In patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease, the rise in systemic blood flow is usually the result of an increase in both the effective pulmonary flow and the V-A shunt. The benefit obtained by habitual squatters is thought due to redistribution of the output of the heart with the increase in systemic flow confined to the upper part of the body reducing anoxia to the vital centers.