Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Comparative Study
A quantitative analysis of the acidosis of cardiac arrest: a prospective observational study.
Metabolic acidosis is common in patients with cardiac arrest and is conventionally considered to be essentially due to hyperlactatemia. However, hyperlactatemia alone fails to explain the cause of metabolic acidosis. Recently, the Stewart-Figge methodology has been found to be useful in explaining and quantifying acid-base changes in various clinical situations. This novel quantitative methodology might also provide useful insight into the factors responsible for the acidosis of cardiac arrest. We proposed that hyperlactatemia is not the sole cause of cardiac arrest acidosis and that other factors participate significantly in its development. ⋯ The cause of metabolic acidosis in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is complex and is not due to hyperlactatemia alone. Furthermore, compensating changes occur spontaneously, attenuating its severity.