Intraoperative change of lactate level is associated with postoperative outcomes in pediatric cardiac surgery patients: retrospective observational study

BACKGROUND: A change of serum lactate concentrations appeared to be useful for predicting outcomes in various acute ill settings. However, there is little information on intraoperative change of lactate level in pediatric cardiac surgery patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study of 459 children who received pediatric cardiac surgery to determine the association between change of lactate level after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and patient prognosis (length of ICU stay and incidence of postoperative serious adverse events (SAEs)). We defined change of lactate level after CPB (LAC⊿) as (final lactate level measurement in the operating room) – (lactate level measured at the end of CPB). To study the independent association of LAC⊿ with length of ICU stay, we used linear regression model. RESULTS: There were 1145 lactate measurements after CPB in this study cohort. After weaning from CPB, the serum lactate levels significantly increased from 2.1 mmol/L to 2.5 mmol/L (p < 0.001). Patients with higher LAC⊿ had significantly longer stay in ICU (p = 0.017) and higher incidence of SAEs (p = 0.002). In multivariate linear regression analysis, higher LAC⊿ showed a significant independent association with longer length of ICU stay. CONCLUSIONS: Increased lactate level after CPB was associated with the longer duration of ICU stay and increased risk of postoperative SAEs in pediatric cardiac surgery patients. Future studies should be conducted to determine the clinical utility of intraoperative trend of lactate levels. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12871-015-0007-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.