Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · May 1993
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialSafety of low-dose intraoperative bicarbonate therapy: a prospective, double-blind, randomized study. The Study of Perioperative Ischemia (SPI) Research Group.
Recent recommendations suggest that sodium bicarbonate may not be useful for the treatment of metabolic acidosis. However, these recommendations are based primarily on both clinical studies and animal models of metabolic acidosis with arterial hypoxemia (PaO2 of < 80 torr [< 10.7 kPa]). This study was designed to determine the safety and physiologic effects of low-dose sodium bicarbonate in humans who developed intraoperative metabolic acidosis in the absence of hypoxemia. ⋯ Administration of sodium bicarbonate to well-oxygenated patients with mild metabolic acidosis resulted in a correction of the acidosis, without significant changes in cardiac output, total body oxygen use, or PaO2 (oxygen tension). These effects remain to be validated in patients with hypoxemia, more severe acidosis, or less stable circulation.