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Published on: September 22, 2023
Resuscitation of critically ill patients based on the results of gastric tonometry: a prospective, randomized,
C D Gomersall1, G M Joynt, R C Freebairn
1Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, NT.
Objective:
To determine whether additional therapy aimed at correcting low gastric intramucosal pH (pHi) improves outcome in conventionally resuscitated, critically ill patients.
Design:
Prospective, randomized, controlled study.
Setting:
General intensive care unit (ICU) of a university teaching hospital.
Patients:
A total of 210 adult patients, with a median Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score of 24 (range, 8-51).
Interventions:
All patients were resuscitated according to standard guidelines. After resuscitation, those patients in the intervention group with a pHi of <7.35 were treated with additional colloid and then dobutamine (5 microg/kg/min then 10 microg/kg min) until 24 hrs after enrollment.
Measurements And Main Results:
There were no significant differences (p > .05) in ICU mortality (39.6% in the control group vs. 38.5% in the intervention group), hospital mortality (45.3% in the control group vs. 42.3% in the intervention group), and 30-day mortality (43.7% in the control group vs. 40.2 in the intervention group); survival curves; median modified maximal multiorgan dysfunction score (10 points in the control group vs. 13 points in the intervention group); median modified duration of ICU stay (12 days in the control group vs. 11.5 days in the intervention group); or median modified duration of hospital stay (60 days in the control group vs. 42 days in the intervention group). A subgroup analysis of those patients with gastric mucosal pH of > or =7.35 at admission revealed no difference in ICU mortality (10.3% in the control group vs. 14.8% in the intervention group), hospital mortality (13.8% in the control group vs. 29.6% in the intervention group), or 30-day mortality (10.3% in the control group vs. 26.9% in the intervention group).
Conclusions:
The routine use of treatment titrated against pHi in the management of critically ill patients cannot be supported. Failure to improve outcome may be caused by an inability to produce a clinically significant change in pHi or because pHi is simply a marker of disease rather than a factor in the pathogenesis of multiorgan failure.
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