Predicting fluid responsiveness with the passive leg raising test: don’t be fooled by intra-abdominal hypertension!

Fluid therapy is often used as first line therapy in critically ill patients in shock. Among the methods currently available to detect preload responsiveness, the PLR test has been demonstrated to be reliable in many studies and a recent meta-analysis (1,2). According to Monnet and Teboul, five rules need to be taken into account, when performing a PLR (3).