Monitoring of the Progression of the Perioperative Serum Lactate Concentration Improves the Accuracy of the Prediction of Acute Mesenteric Ischemia Development After Cardiovascular Surgery.

Objectives: To examine the sensitivity and specificity of perioperative lactate gradients for the prediction of subsequent acute mesenteric ischemia development in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery.

Design: Retrospective, single-center, case-control study.

Setting: University hospital.

Participants: The study comprised 108 (1.15%) patients with acute mesenteric ischemia who were selected from 9,385 patients who underwent cardiovascular surgery and were matched to 324 control patients by age and surgery type.

Interventions: None.

Measurements And Main Results: Univariate and logistic regression analyses were used to examine intraoperative and early postoperative lactate levels in patients with and without mesenteric ischemia after cardiac surgery. Late intraoperative lactate concentrations were significantly greater in patients who subsequently developed mesenteric ischemia (p < 0.001). Patients with lactate levels >3 mmol/L had a four-fold increased risk of mesenteric ischemia development (odds ratio [OR] 4.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.4-7.5; area under the curve [AUC] 0.597; p < 0.002). Patients whose lactate levels remained >3 mmol/L on the first postoperative day had a nearly eight-fold increased risk (OR 7.8, 95% CI 4.6-13.3; AUC 0.68; p < 0.001), indicating that mesenteric ischemia developed at an early stage in almost every second patient (p < 0.001). For patients with normal or less elevated lactate levels, similar results were obtained for a >200% increase between the intraoperative and early postoperative periods (OR 4.1, 95% CI 2.4-6.8; AUC 0.62; p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Late intraoperative and early postoperative lactate levels >3 mmol/L and increases >200%, even when remaining within the normal range, should raise the suspicion of subsequent mesenteric ischemia development.