Decompensated metabolic acidosis in the emergency department: Epidemiology, sodium bicarbonate therapy, and clinical outcomes

Christopher Guy; Natasha E Holmes; Kartik Kishore; Nada Marhoon; Ary Serpa-Neto

doi:10.1016/j.ccrj.2023.05.003

Decompensated metabolic acidosis in the emergency department: Epidemiology, sodium bicarbonate therapy, and clinical outcomes

Crit Care Resusc. 2023 Jun 24;25(2):71-77. doi: 10.1016/j.ccrj.2023.05.003. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Christopher Guy¹, Natasha E Holmes^{2

3}, Kartik Kishore², Nada Marhoon², Ary Serpa-Neto^{1

2

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Intensive Care, Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
² Data Analytics Research and Evaluation (DARE) Centre, Austin Health and the University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia.
³ Department of Critical Care, School of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ Department of Critical Care Medicine, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo, Brazil.

Abstract

Objective: This article aims to describe the epidemiology of decompensated metabolic acidosis, the characteristics of sodium bicarbonate (SB) administration and outcomes in emergency department (ED) patients.

Design: This is a retrospective cohort study.

Setting: ED of a tertiary referral hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Participants: Adult patients presenting to the ED between 1 July 2011 and 20 September 2020 with decompensated metabolic acidosis diagnosed on arterial blood gas (ABG).

Main outcome measures: We compared characteristics between those treated with or without SB. We studied SB administration characteristics, change in laboratory variables, factors associated with use and dose, and clinical outcomes.

Results: Among 753,613 ED patients, 314 had decompensated metabolic acidosis on ABG, with 17.8% receiving SB. Patients in the SB group had lower median pH, CO2, bicarbonate, and base excess (BE) levels compared with the No SB group (P < 0.01). The median number of SB doses in the SB group was one treatment. This was given at a median total dose of 100 mmol and at a median of 2.8 h after the diagnostic blood gas results. Only 42% of patients in the SB group had a subsequent blood gas measured. In such patients, there was no significant change in pH, bicarbonate, or BE. SB therapy was not independently associated with mortality.

Conclusions: ABG-confirmed decompensated metabolic acidosis was rare but associated with a high mortality. SB administration occurred in a minority of patients and in more acidaemic patients. However, SB dose was stereotypical and not tailored to acidosis severity. Assessment of SB effect was infrequent and showed no correction of acidosis. Systematic studies of titrated SB therapy are required to inform current practice.

Keywords: Acidosis; Base excess; Bicarbonate; Emergency department; pH.