Introduction:

the association of lactate level with mortality in patients with suspected infection and sepsis is well established. Sensitivity is between 66 and 83%, with specificity between 80 and 85%. However, lactate is neither sensitive nor specific enough to detect or rule out the diagnosis on its own as serum lactate is an important biomarker of tissue hypoxia and dysfunction but is not a direct measure of tissue perfusion. Lactate and standard base measured on admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are useful for prognosis in critically ill patients since their serum levels predict mortality through the score itself. But the real importance goes beyond an absolute value, since it is better to measure its clearance over a given time.

Objective:

to demonstrate that lactate clearance and standard base deficit recorded at admission and at 24 hours are related to a better prognosis and decreased mortality in septic shock.

Material and methods:

descriptive statistics were used (measures of central tendency and dispersion, as well as frequencies and percentages). Likewise, inferential statistics were used with the Student’s t test, χ2, ROC curve, area under the curve and Youden index, with a confidence interval of 95%.

Results:

the statistical association with mortality was presented in the clearance of standard base deficit and in lactate clearance.

Conclusion:

it was shown that lactate clearance and standard base deficit recorded at admission and at 24 hours were related to a better prognosis and decreased mortality in patients with septic shock.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )