Risk Potential for Organ Dysfunction Associated With Sodium Bicarbonate Therapy in Critically Ill Patients With Hemodynamic Worsening

Background: The role of sodium bicarbonate therapy (SBT) remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate whether hemodynamic status before SBT contributed to the heterogeneous outcomes associated with SBT in acute critically ill patients. Methods: We obtained data from patients with metabolic acidosis from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-III database. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to match the SBT group with the control group. Logistic regression and Cox regression were used to analyze a composite of newly “developed or exacerbated organ dysfunction” (d/eOD) within 7 days of ICU admission and 28-day mortality associated with SBT for metabolic acidosis. Results: A total of 1,765 patients with metabolic acidosis were enrolled, and 332 pairs obtained by PSM were applied to the final analyses in the study. An increased incidence of newly d/eOD was observed in the SB group compared with the control group (54.8 vs. 44.6%, p < 0.01). Multivariable logistic regression indicated that the adjusted OR of SBT for this composite outcome was no longer significant [OR (95% CI): 1.39 (0.9, 1.85); p = 0.164]. This effect of SBT did not change with the quintiles stratified by pH. Interestingly, SBT was associated with an increased risk of the composite of newly d/eOD in the subgroup of patients with worsening hemodynamics before SBT [adjusted OR (95% CI): 3.6 (1.84, 7.22), p < 0.001]. Moreover, the risk potential for this composite of outcomes was significantly increased in patients characterized by both worsening [adjusted OR (95% CI): 2.91 (1.54, 5.47), p < 0.001] and unchanged hemodynamics [adjusted OR (95% CI): 1.94 (1.01, 3.72), p = 0.046] compared to patients with improved hemodynamics before SBT. Our study failed to demonstrate an association between SBT and 28-day mortality in acute critically ill patients with metabolic acidosis. Conclusions: Our findings did not demonstrate an association between SBT and outcomes in critically ill patients with metabolic acidosis. However, patients with either worsening or unchanged hemodynamic status in initial resuscitation had a significantly higher risk potential of newly d/eOD subsequent to SBT.