Treatment of metabolic acidosis

Metabolic acidosis is characterized by a decrease of the blood pH associated with a decrease in the bicarbonate concentration. This may be secondary to a decrease in the strong ion difference or to an increase in the weak acids concentration, mainly the inorganic phosphorus. From a conceptual point of view, two types of nontoxic metabolic acidosis must be differentiated: the mineral metabolic acidosis that reveals the presence of an excess of nonmetabolizable anions, and the organic metabolic acidosis that reveals an excess of metabolizable anions. Significance and consequences of these two types of acidosis are radically different. Mineral acidosis is not caused by a failure in the energy metabolic pathways, and its treatment is mainly symptomatic by correcting the blood pH (alkali therapy) or accelerating the elimination of excessive mineral anions (renal replacement therapy). On the other hand, organic acidosis gives evidence that a severe underlying metabolic distress is in process. No reliable argument exists to prove that this acidosis is harmful under these conditions in humans. Experimental data even show that hypoxic cells are able to survive only if the medium is kept acidic. The management of an acute organic metabolic acidosis is therefore primarily based on the cause of the acidosis, and no scientific argument exists to justify the correction of the acid-base imbalance in this context.