My question would be where is the venous lactate being drawn from? My 
assumption is that we draw it from the central venous catheter thus negating 
any regional perfusion issue. 

Jeffrey R Hanlon RN
Stamp Out Sepsis
 



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
To: Shawver, Stephanie <[email protected]>
Cc: sepsisgroups <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, Nov 14, 2012 4:28 am
Subject: Re: [Sepsis Groups] Venous vs. Arterial Lactate



Hi Stephanie,
Most would suggest arterial lactate is the better measure. Venous lactate can 
be dependent on local perfusion to the sampled limb, whereas arterial lactate 
is analogous to mixed venous oxygen saturation: it's a more appropriate 
surrogate measure of global perfusion.
Pragmatically, if a venous lactate is normal we can be reassured that arterial 
lactate will also be normal. If venous is high, however, it's worth checking 
arterial to rule out regional perfusion abnormalities.
Capillary lactate has also been validated...
Hope this helps
Kind regards
Ron
Dr Ron DanielsChair: UK Sepsis TrustCEO: Global Sepsis Alliance
Sent on the move from my iPhone, excuse brevity!
On 9 Nov 2012, at 16:15, "Shawver, Stephanie" <[email protected]> wrote:

#AOLMsgPart_2_224cd235-8760-4729-9d3c-73026ba4923c td{color: black;}   

Colleagues,

Our facility has recently implemented point of care arterial
lactate testing as an extension of point of care ABG?s. However, all of
our sepsis protocols are built around the assessment of venous lactate. We are
starting to see practitioners rely on the arterial lactate rather than the
venous lactate and / or reassess an elevated arterial lactate with a venous
lactate or vice versa. It is a concern of mine that if a practitioner sees a
normal arterial lactate and doesn?t assess the venous lactate as well ?
it could be missed that the venous lactate is elevated (as I understand it, in
sepsis the venous lactate will be elevated before the arterial lactate becomes
elevated). We have had a couple cases where the practitioner did not activate
the sepsis protocols based on a normal arterial lactate, only to find out later
the venous lactate was elevated and EGDT was delayed.

I have looked into the research and cannot find much about the
use of arterial lactates in sepsis & all the SSC / EGDT studies focus on
the use of venous lactate levels. Have any of you ran into this in your sepsis
programs and if so, how did you address it? And if anyone out there can point
me to research about arterial vs. venous lactate in sepsis? Any
thoughts/feedback/suggestions are welcome! Thank you!

Stephanie Shawver BSN, RN

SLMV Sepsis and Stroke Coordinator 

St. Luke's Magic Valley 

801 Pole Line Road West | Twin Falls, ID 83301 

Office: (208) 814.4030  | Email: [email protected]

Suspect stroke? Think FAST! 

Facial droop, Arm drift, Speech
impairment, Time is brain - this is an emergency!

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