Determining the IV Fluids Required for a Ten Day Medical Emergency on Space Station Freedom (Comparison of packaged vs. on-orbit produced solutions)

To aid planning for the storage of supplies onboard Space Station Freedom, an estimate was made of the amount of intravenous (IV) fluids required to support a patient who has suffered a medical emergency for a period of up to 10 days. Six different medical scenarios were evaluated, and the volume of IV fluids required for each scenario was estimated. Up to 220 liters of fluid would be required to support a patient for all of the scenarios. When optimizing the volumes to support any single scenario, a total of 123 liters is required. Use of a water polishing system to produce sterile water for injection from potable supplies and on-station formulation of IV fluids results in a smaller mass and volume requirement for the Fluid Therapy Subsystem than carrying prepackaged bags of fluid.