Distributions of cardiopulmonary variables in pediatric survivors and nonsurvivors of septic shock.

The association of cardiopulmonary variables with outcome was investigated in 42 pediatric patients (18 survivors) with septic shock. All cardiopulmonary variables were obtained during active BP support. The variable distributions were separated into ranges by two empiric cutoff methods: normal ranges and the survivor median values. The proportion of survivors with normal values of wedge pressure and cardiac index was significantly (p less than .05) higher than the proportion of survivors outside the normal range. The percentage of survival also significantly (p less than .05) increased with above-normal values of oxygen consumption, arteriovenous O2 content difference, O2 extraction, pH, and core temperature. There were significantly (p less than .05) more nonsurvivors with wedge pressure, pulmonary shunt, and pH values below the survivor medians. Therapeutic goals based on the distributions of these eight variables isolated patient groups with survival rates of 59% to 75%, compared to the overall survival rate of 43%.