Venous hypercarbia associated with severe sepsis and systemic hypoperfusion.

We studied 37 patients with severe sepsis and systemic hypoperfusion to assess changes in PvCO2. Before fluid administration, the cardiac index (CI) was 2.64 +/- 0.14 L/min.m2. The PvCO2 was 38 +/- 1 torr and mixed venous pH was 7.32 +/- 0.02. The venous-arterial CO2 tension gradient (P[v-a]CO2) was 6 +/- 1 torr. After fluid administration, the CI increased to 3.45 +/- 0.14 L/min.m2 (p less than .001) and the P(v-a)CO2 decreased to 5 +/- 1 torr. The correlation between the change in CI and the change in P(v-a)CO2 was r = .42, p less than .01. P(v-a)CO2 was elevated in 19 (51%) patients before fluid administration (P[v-a]CO2 greater than 6 torr) (hypercarbic group). The P(v-a)CO2 gradient in this group was 9 +/- 1 compared with 4 +/- 1 torr in 18 patients with a normal P(v-a)CO2 gradient (p less than .001) (normocarbic group). PvCO2 was 41 +/- 2 torr in the hypercarbic group compared with 35 +/- 2 torr in the normocarbic group (p less than .05). No difference was noted in PaCO2. Venous arterial pH and HCO3- gradients were of greater magnitude in the hypercarbic group, -0.05 +/- 0.003 and 2.4 +/- 0.3 mEq/L compared to -0.02 +/- 0.004 (p less than .001) and 1.1 +/- 0.2 mEq/L (p less than .001), respectively. CI in the hypercarbic group was 2.3 +/- 0.2 compared to 3.0 +/- 0.2 L/min.m2 in the normocarbic group (p less than .05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)