Logo image
Acetazolamide Therapy for Metabolic Alkalosis in Critically Ill Pediatric Patients
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Acetazolamide Therapy for Metabolic Alkalosis in Critically Ill Pediatric Patients

Amir Bar, Jeff Cies, Kathleen Stapleton, Danna Tauber, Arun Chopra and Paul M. Shore
Pediatric critical care medicine, v 16(2), pp E34-E40
01 Feb 2015
PMID: 25647140

Abstract

Critical Care Medicine General & Internal Medicine Life Sciences & Biomedicine Pediatrics Science & Technology
Objective: Despite a paucity of supporting literature, acetazolamide is commonly used in critically ill children with metabolic alkalosis (elevated plasma bicarbonate [pHco-3] and pH). The objective of this study was to assess the change in 18 hours after initiation of acetazolamide therapy. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: PICU of an urban, tertiary-care children's hospital. Patients: Mechanically ventilated children (<= 17 yr) with metabolic alkalosis (pHco(3)(-) >= 35 mmol/L). Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Of 153 consecutively screened patients, 61 patients (29 female patients) were enrolled: 18 cardiac patients (after congenital heart disease repair) and 43 noncardiac patients. The cardiac patients were younger than the noncardiac patients (median [interquartile range] age, 0.6 mo [0.3-2.5 mo] vs 7.4 mo [2.8-39.9 mo]; p < 0.00001) and had higher preacetazolamide baseline diuretic scores and urine output. The pHco-3 levels 18 hours after initiation of acetazolamide were reduced in the cohort as a whole (40.2 +/- 4.8 to 36.2 +/- 5.6 mmol/L; p < 0.001) and in the noncardiac patients, but they were unchanged in the cardiac patients. The Pco(2) remained unchanged after acetazolamide in both subgroups. Because young age and presence of cardiac disease were potential confounders, the 20 noncardiac patients who are 6 months old or younger were compared with the cardiac subgroup and demonstrated reduced pHco-3 after acetazolamide and lower preacetazolamide baseline diuretic score and urine output. Conclusion: Acetazolamide reduces pHco-3 concentration in critically ill, mechanically ventilated children overall, but it did not do so in cardiac patients in our cohort, even in comparison with noncardiac patients of a similar age. These findings do not support the current use of acetazolamide for metabolic alkalosis in critically ill children with congenital heart disease. Further study is required to determine why these cardiac patients respond differently to acetazolamide than noncardiac patients and whether this response impacts important clinical outcomes, for example, weaning mechanical ventilation.

Metrics

20 Record Views
12 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Critical Care Medicine
Pediatrics
Logo image