Drug dosage in isolated limb perfusion: evaluation of a limb volume model for extremity volume calculation

Podleska, Lars Erik; Pöppel, Thorsten D.; Herbrik, Michael; Dahlkamp, Lisa; Grabellus, Florian; Täger, Georg

doi:10.1186/1477-7819-12-81

Article / ChapterCC BY 2.0Tue Apr 1 2014

Drug dosage in isolated limb perfusion : evaluation of a limb volume model for extremity volume calculation

Podleska, Lars Erik ; Pöppel, Thorsten D.; Herbrik, Michael ; Dahlkamp, Lisa ; Grabellus, Florian ; Täger, Georg

Background: Exact drug dosing in isolated limb perfusion (ILP) and infusion (ILI) is essential. We developed andevaluated a model for calculating the volume of extremities and compared this model with body weight- andheight-dependent parameters.

Methods: The extremity was modeled by a row of coupled truncated cones. The sizes of the truncated cone baseswere derived from the circumference measurements of the extremity at predefined levels (5 cm). The resultingvolumes were added. This extremity volume model was correlated to the computed tomography (CT) volume data ofthe extremity (total limb volume). The extremity volume was also correlated with the patient’s body weight, body massindex (BMI) and ideal body weight (IBW). The no-fat CT limb volume was correlated with the circumference-measuredlimb volume corrected by the ideal-body-weight to actual-body-weight ratio (IBW corrected-limb-volume).

Results: The correlation between the CT volume and the volume measured by the circumference was high andsignificant. There was no correlation between the limb volume and the bare body weight, BMI or IBW. The correlationbetween the no-fat CT volume and IBW-corrected limb volume was high and significant.

Conclusions: An appropriate drug dosing in ILP can be achieved by combining the limb volume with the simplecircumference measurements and the IBW to body-weight ratio.