Microdialysis

Today microdialysis is a routine technique for monitoring the chemistry of tissues and organs in physiological and pharmacological research on animals. In more than 8000 papers microdialysis is used to uncover physiological mechanisms and the influence of drugs in almost every organ of the body. Since the first papers describing microdialysis in the human brain and peripheral tissues (1, 2) there are close to 1000 papers published on microdialysis in man and microdialysis has become a technique for routine monitoring of energy metabolism especially in neurointensive care (3, 4). This paper gives an account of the microdialysis technique describing its practical use and interpretation in monitoring energy metabolism and ischemia in human brain and peripheral tissues.