Correlation Between Blood Lactate Level and Hospitalization and Prognosis in Drug Intoxication Patients in Emergency Medicine Department

Background: Several drug intoxications can affect both pulmonary and cellular respiration. We therefore think that assessing blood lactate levels can provide information about prognosis. Blood lactate levels have provided information about prognosis in several diseases involving hypoxia at the cellular level, such as sepsis and trauma. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is any relation between blood lactate levels and mortality, morbidity, and prognosis in patients presenting to the emergency department with drug intoxication. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study involved patients admitted to the emergency department due to suicidal drug intoxication over a one-year period (January to December 2016). The primary outcome measure was the relationship between serum lactate concentrations and patient discharge or hospitalization, and if hospitalized, the duration of stay. The secondary outcome measure was the relationship between serum lactate concentrations and toxic dose intake in single-drug intoxication. Results: We enrolled 372 patients, of whom 192 were analyzed after exclusion criteria application. The mean blood lactate level in the total patient group was 2.6±1.46, and 2.7±1.9 in the single drug group and 2.5±1.3 in the multidrug group. Also, blood lactate levels in the overdose group and toxic dose group were 3.4±3.0 and 2.4±0.9, respectively. No significant differences were determined in the lactate level, discharge, hospitalization and the length of hospital stay between the single drug and multidrug groups. In the toxic dose group, patient ages and number of admissions to intensive care unit were significantly higher than in the overdose group. The number of discharges was significantly lower in the toxic dose group. No correlation was determined between the serum lactate level and the length of hospital stay. Conclusion: Lactate level is not a useful parameter for predicting hospitalization in drug intoxication patients.