In the last issue of Journal of neurosurgical anesthesiology, there is an interesting article discussing elevated serum lactate during craniotomies. Brallier et al performed a retrospective cohort study of elective adult craniotomy cases (436 patients).

They found that elevated intraoperative serum lactate in craniotomy patients is associated with new neurological deficits (odds ratio, 2.11) and longer length of stay (20% less likely to be discharged on a given day). Elevated lactate was not associated with systemic complications such as myocardial infarction or mortality.

Read the article here.