Cardiac index-guided therapy to maintain optimised postinduction cardiac index in high-risk patients having major...

It is unclear whether optimising intraoperative cardiac index can reduce postoperative complications. We tested the hypothesis that maintaining optimised postinduction cardiac index during and for the first 8 h after surgery reduces the incidence of a composite outcome of complications within 28 days after surgery compared with routine care in high-risk patients having elective major open abdominal surgery.

In three German and two Spanish centres, high-risk patients having elective major open abdominal surgery were randomised to cardiac index-guided therapy to maintain optimised postinduction cardiac index (cardiac index at which pulse pressure variation was <12%) during and for the first 8 h after surgery using intravenous fluids and dobutamine or to routine care. The primary outcome was the incidence of a composite outcome of moderate or severe complications within 28 days after surgery.

We analysed 318 of 380 enrolled subjects. The composite primary outcome occurred in 84 of 152 subjects (55%) assigned to cardiac index-guided therapy and in 77 of 166 subjects (46%) assigned to routine care (odds ratio: 1.87, 95% confidence interval: 1.03-3.39, P=0.038). Per-protocol analyses confirmed the results of the primary outcome analysis.

Maintaining optimised postinduction cardiac index during and for the first 8 h after surgery did not reduce, and possibly increased, the incidence of a composite outcome of complications within 28 days after surgery compared with routine care in high-risk patients having elective major open abdominal surgery. Clinicians should not strive to maintain optimised postinduction cardiac index during and after surgery in expectation of reducing complications.

NCT03021525.