Plasma-Lyte 148: A clinical review

AIM: To outline the physiochemical properties and specific clinical uses of Plasma-Lyte 148 as choice of solution for fluid intervention in critical illness, surgery and perioperative medicine. METHODS: We performed an electronic literature search from Medline and PubMed (via Ovid), anesthesia and pharmacology textbooks, and online sources including studies that compared Plasma-Lyte 148 to other crystalloid solutions. The following keywords were used: “surgery”, “anaesthesia”, “anesthesia”, “anesthesiology”, “anaesthesiology”, “fluids”, “fluid therapy”, “crystalloid”, “saline”, “plasma-Lyte”, “plasmalyte”, “hartmann’s”, “ringers” “acetate”, “gluconate”, “malate”, “lactate”. All relevant articles were accessed in full. We summarized the data and reported the data in tables and text. RESULTS: We retrieved 104 articles relevant to the choice of Plasma-Lyte 148 for fluid intervention in critical illness, surgery and perioperative medicine. We analyzed the data and reported the results in tables and text. CONCLUSION: Plasma-Lyte 148 is an isotonic, buffered intravenous crystalloid solution with a physiochemical composition that closely reflects human plasma. Emerging data supports the use of buffered crystalloid solutions in preference to saline in improving physicochemical outcomes. Further large randomized controlled trials assessing the comparative effectiveness of Plasma-Lyte 148 and other crystalloid solutions in measuring clinically important outcomes such as morbidity and mortality are needed.