Prognosis of severe sepsis patients assessed by lactate clearance rate

Objective To retrospectively analyze the correlation between the prognosis and the lactate clearance rate in severe sepsis patients.Methods The data of 247 severe sepsis patients were col- lected,including the score of APACHEⅡafter admission to ICU,the morbidity of septic shock,the lac- tate clearance rate after 12 hours in ICU and the patients' prognosis.A total of 247 cases were divided in- to survival group and dead group,low lactate clearance rate group and high lactate clearance rate group, and the differences between them were compared for statistical significance.Results There were no differences in age,sex,the score of APACHEⅡafter admission to ICU and the initial blood concentration of lactate(P＞0.05).In survival group,the morbidity of septic shock was significantly less(31.03% vs 83.33%,P＜0.01),but the lactate clearance rate was significantly higher than in dead group[(31.86±16.34)% vs(14.77±10.35)%,P＜0.01];In high lactate clearance rate group,the morbidity of sep- tic shock and the mortality were significantly lower than in the low lactate clearance rate group(29.45% vs 90.48%,P＜0.01;30.67% vs 85.71%,P＜0.01).Conclusion The lactate clearance rate can pre- dict the prognosis of severe sepsis even in early phase.