Can perioperative pCO2 gaps predict complications in patients undergoing major elective abdominal surgery randomized to goal-directed therapy or standard care? A secondary analysis

Ilonka N de Keijzer*, Thomas Kaufmann, Eric E C de Waal, Michael Frank, Dianne de Korte-de Boer, Leonard M Montenij, Wolfgang Buhre, Thomas W L Scheeren

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The difference between venous and arterial carbon dioxide pressure (pCO 2 gap), has been used as a diagnostic and prognostic tool. We aimed to assess whether perioperative pCO 2 gaps can predict postoperative complications. This was a secondary analysis of a multicenter RCT comparing goal-directed therapy (GDT) to standard care in which 464 patients undergoing high-risk elective abdominal surgery were included. Arterial and central venous blood samples were simultaneously obtained at four time points: after induction, at the end of surgery, at PACU/ICU admission, and PACU/ICU discharge. Complications within the first 30 days after surgery were recorded. Similar pCO 2 gaps were found in patients with and without complications, except for the pCO 2 gap at the end of surgery, which was higher in patients with complications (6.0 mmHg [5.0–8.0] vs. 6.0 mmHg [4.1–7.5], p = 0.005). The area under receiver operating characteristics curves for predicting complications from pCO 2 gaps at all time points were between 0.5 and 0.6. A weak correlation between ScvO 2 and pCO 2 gaps was found for all timepoints (ρ was between − 0.40 and − 0.29 for all timepoints, p < 0.001). The pCO 2 gap did not differ between GDT and standard care at any of the selected time points. In our study, pCO 2 gap was a poor predictor of major postoperative complications at all selected time points. Our research does not support the use of pCO 2 gap as a prognostic tool after high-risk abdominal surgery. pCO 2 gaps were comparable between GDT and standard care. Clinical trial registration Netherlands Trial Registry NTR3380.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)469-477
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing
Volume38
Issue number2
Early online date22 Jan 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Keywords

  • Cardiac output
  • Goal-directed therapy
  • Hemodynamic monitoring
  • Postoperative Complications
  • pCO2 gap

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