High Central Venous Pressure Associated with Mortality in Intensive Care Unit

BACKGROUND: Central venous pressure (CVP) has been used as a measurement tool to assess hemodynamics, medication, and nutritional status in critically ill patients for decades. We frequently use the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation or Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score to predict the mortality of intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of time and procedures to measure these parameters. Moreover, not every single hospital can apply these scores. Since CVP is widely used in ICU, we can use the value of CVP to predict mortality. AIM: The aim of this study was to find the correlation between CVP and mortality rate. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in ICU of Haji Adam Malik General Hospital, Medan, in 2017. Basic demographic data, CVP measurements and mortality were recorded among all ICU patients. Patients with CVP >12 mmHg were considered high. The association between CVP and mortality was analyzed. RESULTS: One hundred patients were admitted during the study period with mortality rate of 38%. The most common cause of ICU admission was postoperative neurosurgical patients (28%). We found correlation between high CVP (>12 mmHg) and mortality among ICU patients (odds ratio: 3.372; 95% confidence interval: 1.349–8.428; p = 0.008) CONCLUSION: CVP level >12 mmHg associated with higher mortality rate in ICU patients.