Validity of lactate as a mortality biomarker in pediatric septic shock patients

Validez del lactato como biomarcador de mortalidad pediátrica en choque séptico

Introduction: septic shock is a major cause of pediatric admission and mortality in intensive care. Lactate is a potential biomarker for early detection and mortality prediction, for low lactate clearance values are associated with decreased survival. Objective: to establish the validity of this biomarker and whether there is a relationship between hyperlactatemia and its serum clearance, with mortality in patients with septic shock. Materials and Methods:  a case series carried out at the Neiva Hospital, Colombia, between October 2019 and February 2020, including patients from 1 month to 18 years of age, excluding transferred or previously treated patients. Data was collected through a daily medical record review, using descriptive statistics and p-value. Results: 22 patients were analyzed, most of them females (63.6%), mean age 4 years, mortality 13.6%. Pneumonia was the primary cause of septic shock. The highest hyperlactatemia values were found at diagnosis. The highest clearance level was obtained between 6 and 12 hours after admission. No p - value for mortality, lactate levels and clearance were < 0.05. Discussion: lactate as a mortality marker in the pediatric population is still under study. The limitation of this study is the small sample size, to which the p-value result of > 0.05 could be attributed. Conclusion: this study does not have enough statistical power to endorse the correlation between lactate clearance levels with death in the studied sample; studies including a greater number of pediatric cases, is recommended.