Objectives: To correlate lactate clearance with Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) mortality. ethods: 45 (mean age 40.15 mo, 60% males) consecutive admissions in the PICU were enrolled between January 2015 and December 2015. Lactate clearance (Lactate level at admission – level 6 hr later x 100 /lactate level at admission) in first 6 hours of hospitalization was correlated to in­hospital mortality and PRISM score. Results: Twelve out of 45 patients died. 90% died among those with delayed/poor clearance (clearance <30%) compared to 8.5% in those with good clearance (clearance >30%) (P<0.001). Lactate clearance <30% predicted mortality with sensitivity of 75%, specificity of 97%, positive predictive value of 90%, and negative predictive value of 91.42%. Predictability was comparable to PRISM score >30. Conclusion: actate clearance at six hours correlates with mortality in the PICU. 

Keywords: In­Hospital Mortality; Lactate Clearance; PRISM Score.