ArticleCritical care (London, England)2021
Association between the use of balanced fluids and outcomes in critically ill children: a before and after study.
Article in Critical care (London, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of normal saline and half saline preservation serums on sodium levels, blood pressure, and acidosis in PICU patients.Medicine · 2026Trial
- Contribution of intravenous medication diluent fluid composition on the development of dyschloremia in intensive care unit patients: A retrospective chart review.SAGE open medicine · 2025Article
- A balancing act: drifting away from the reflexive use of "ab"normal saline.Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany) · 2024Review
- Intravenous fluid therapy and hospital outcomes for vaso-occlusive episodes in children, adolescents, and young adults with sickle cell disease.Pediatric blood & cancer · 2024Article
- Fluid bolus therapy in pediatric sepsis: a narrative review.European journal of medical research · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHyperchloremia and chloride load have been associated with worse clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. We sought to evaluate the electrolyte profile and clinical outcomes associated with a unit-wide transition from saline to balanced fluids for resuscitation and maintenance fluids in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
methodsA before and after analysis of all patients admitted to the PICU in a large, urban, academic hospital between August 2018 and March 2020. The transition from the use of saline to the use of balanced fluids for both resuscitation and maintenance fluid as standard care occurred in June 2019. The primary outcome was day 3 acute kidney injury (AKI). The secondary outcomes included mortality, ventilator-free days (VFDs), need for renal replacement therapy (RRT), hospital length of stay (LOS), and electrolyte abnormalities.
resultsOverall, 2863 patients (47% female) with a day 3 AKI rate of 12.9% (n = 130) and a mortality rate of 2.8% (n = 79) were included. After adjusting for confounders (age, PRISM III, mechanical ventilation, and immunocompromised state, septic shock), there were no significant differences in the odds of day 3 AKI (pre 13%, post 12.5%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.96, 95%CI 0.65-1.42). There were no differences in the secondary outcomes. The post-intervention period had fewer patients with hyperchloremia (pre 15.5% vs. post 10.4%, p = < 0.0001) and hyperkalemia (pre 3.2% vs. post 1.4%, p = 0.02) and more patients with hypochloremia (pre 9.5% vs. post 14.4%, p = < 0.0001) and hypokalemia (pre 38.2% vs. post 47.2%, p = < 0.0001). In reference to the normochloremic cohort, the hypochloremic cohort had an increase in day 3 AKI, need for RRT, hyperchloremia, and hyperkalemia, and a decrease in hypokalemia; and the hyperchloremic cohort had an increase in VFD and a decrease in hospital LOS.
conclusionsFollowing a unit-wide implementation of balanced fluids as standard care, there were no differences in rates of day 3 AKI or other clinical outcomes. However, there were lower rates of hyperkalemia and hyperchloremia and higher rates of hypokalemia and hypochloremia. Further evaluation of the effect of balanced fluids and the clinical significance of electrolyte abnormalities in critically ill children is needed.
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