The treatment of hypoalbuminemia in the critically ill patient.

Hypoalbuminemia is a common finding in critically ill patients. It has been well documented that hypoalbuminemic patients have a higher morbidity and mortality rate when compared with patients with a normal serum albumin. Consequently, hypoalbuminemic patients are commonly treated with exogenous albumin in the hope of improving their outcome. There is, however, very little evidence that this practice is of any benefit. In this article the physiology of albumin in health and disease is reviewed, and those clinical studies that have investigated the use of albumin in acutely ill hypoalbuminemic patients are evaluated.