Fluid balance assessment. The total perspective.

Fluid balance assessment is a fundamental aspect of caring for critically ill patients who often have volume disturbances. Since the introduction of hemodynamic monitoring in the critical care setting decades ago, we have become more dependent on technology to assist us in evaluating a patient's fluid status and less skilled in basic physical examination and interpretation of common blood and urine values. Information obtained from these basic clinical skills is equally as, if not more, important as numbers derived by invasive means.