The Prognostic Value of Capillary Refill Time in Patients With Sepsis: A Prospective Cohort Study.
Lina Ma, Zhijie Cao, Hu Peng and 4 others
PMID 41622553WHAT IT FOUND
A nurse-measured capillary refill time after fluid resuscitation may help flag sepsis patients at higher risk of death.
It worked as a bedside warning sign, not proof that changing treatment based on it improves outcomes.
Key findings
01Among 86 enrolled patients with sepsis, those who died had longer capillary refill times than survivors at each measured time point.
02The 3-hour capillary refill time was the time point most strongly linked to death within 28 days.
03Early change in capillary refill time over the first 3 hours correlated with lactate clearance in both survivor and non-survivor groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was done in a single centre, so the findings may not apply elsewhere. The number of patients who died was small, so the predictive estimates may be unstable. Capillary refill time was measured by hand, which can introduce observer differences. The study did not adjust for factors that might explain the capillary refill time-death association. All patients received bundled sepsis care, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. The study did not collect other perfusion measures or quantify fluid volumes, so it cannot show that acting on capillary refill time improves outcomes.
Declared interests
Funding came from named training programmes; no commercial sponsor is named in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that measuring capillary refill time and changing treatment based on it reduces sepsis deaths. This study observed association only, and patients received several bundled treatments at once.