Lactate is produced during anaerobic metabolism, which occurs when oxygen delivery to tissues does not meet the tissues' oxygen requirements. The imbalance in oxygen supply and demand occurs in hypoperfused tissues and for this reason blood lactate levels are an important marker of the degreee of tissue hypoperfusion

The likelihood of hypoperfusion increases with increasing lcatate values in our data. The risk of uncompensated shock is over 80% when ABG lactate is over 8 mmol/l.

The degree of lactic acidosis may be measured by serum lactate measurements

Base deficit accurately reflects the tissue perfusion changes according to haemorrhagic shock in a pig model. Lactate correlates closely with base deficit/excess.