Home▸Medical Technology & Imaging Physics▸Starling Forces: The Four Pressures That Decide Whether Fluid Leaves or Enters Your Capillaries

💧 Starling Forces: The Four Pressures That Decide Whether Fluid Leaves or Enters Your Capillaries

Explore the Starling equation and the four opposing pressures that control fluid exchange across capillary walls, and see how their imbalance causes edema.

Medical Technology & Imaging Physics3DModerate60 FPS💧 Water

This simulator lets you adjust each of the four Starling pressures and capillary permeability independently to see in real time whether fluid filters out into tissue or is reabsorbed back into the capillary.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Drag the sliders for capillary hydrostatic pressure, interstitial hydrostatic pressure, capillary oncotic pressure, interstitial oncotic pressure, and permeability, and watch the net filtration arrow and fluid animation respond immediately.

💡 Did You Know?

Roughly 20 liters of fluid filter out of capillaries into tissues every day, but only about 17 liters are reabsorbed directly; the remaining 2 to 3 liters are quietly collected by the lymphatic system and returned to circulation.

⚙ Under the hood

Explore the Starling equation and the four opposing pressures that control fluid exchange across capillary walls, and see how their imbalance causes edema.

physiologycapillary exchangestarling forcesedemahydrostatic pressureoncotic pressurecardiovascular systemfluid balance

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install