Background: Both saline and lactated Ringer's solutions are commonly given to surgical patients. However, hyperchloremic acidosis consequent to saline administration may provoke complications. The authors therefore tested the primary hypothesis that a composite of in-hospital mortality and major postoperative complications is less common in patients given lactated Ringer's solution than normal saline.
Methods:The authors conducted an alternating cohort controlled trial in which adults having colorectal and orthopedic surgery were given either lactated Ringer's solution or normal saline in 2-week blocks between September 2015 and August 2018. The primary outcome was a composite of in-hospital mortality and major postoperative renal, respiratory, infectious, and hemorrhagic complications. The secondary outcome was postoperative acute kidney injury.results: Among 8,616 qualifying patients, 4,187 (49%) were assigned to lactated Ringer's solution, and 4,429 (51%) were assigned to saline. Each group received a median 1.9 l of fluid. The primary composite of major complications was observed in 5.8% of lactated Ringer's versus 6.1% of normal saline patients, with estimated average relative risk across the components of the composite of 1.16 (95% CI, 0.89 to 1.52; P = 0.261). The secondary outcome, postoperative acute kidney injury, Acute Kidney Injury Network stage I-III versus 0, occurred in 6.6% of lactated Ringer's patients versus 6.2% of normal saline patients, with an estimated relative risk of 1.18 (99.3% CI, 0.99 to 1.41; P = 0.009, significance criterion of 0.007). Absolute differences between the treatment groups for each outcome were less than 0.5%, an amount that is not clinically meaningful.conclusions: In elective orthopedic and colorectal surgery patients, there was no clinically meaningful difference in postoperative complications with lactated Ringer's or saline volume replacement. Clinicians can reasonably use either solution intraoperatively. (ANESTHESIOLOGY 2020; 132:614-24) What We Already Know about This Topic • Infusion of large volumes of saline causes hyperchloremic metabolic acidosis • A recent Cochrane review based on 18 small trials reported that major morbidity and mortality were comparable with perioperative saline or lactated Ringer's use
What This Article Tells Us That is New• In a large single-center alternating cohort trial of patients having elective colorectal or orthopedic surgery, there was no clinically meaningful difference in the risk of a composite of in-hospital mortality and major postoperative complications including renal, respiratory, infectious, and hemorrhagic complications A bout 51 million inpatient surgeries were performed in the United States in 2010, based on National Hospital Discharge Survey. 1 Nearly all surgeries require intravenous crystalloid fluids for drug administration and vascular volume repletion. Saline (0.9% sodium chloride; "normal saline") is a commonly used crystalloid, but it has a much higher chloride concentration than human plasma, and is thus u...