The treatment of pulmonary edema in the absence of renal function. A role for sorbitol and furosemide.

In doses sufficient to induce a rapid osmotic loss of fluid from the bowel, sorbitol can provide an alternate method of removing fluid in patients who lack renal function. Two patients with acute pulmonary edema and oliguric renal failure were treated with a combined therapy of sorbitol and furosemide. Their clinical, hemodynamic, and metabolic responses were strikingly similar to those achieved with furosemide therapy alone in patients with normal renal function.