Venous Congestion and Organ Dysfunction in Intensive Care: a Prospective, Multicenter, Observational Study to Evaluate Prevalence and Risk Factors.

Venous congestion, which is a phenomenon described in cardiology and post-operative cardiac surgery, is responsible for an increase in morbidity and mortality.

Indeed, it can lead to kidney failure, liver failure, prolonged ileus, scarring complications, and neurological disorders. Clinical and ultrasound indications have been described to diagnose this condition.

To date, this phenomenon is poorly known and not described in intensive care patients outside the cardiac context. However, intensive care patients can present the risk factors associated with the occurrence of congestion: acute cardiac failure, significant water-salt overload, and/or fluid distribution anomalies. Thus, observational studies have found an association between the input-output balance, the quantity of salt-water intake, the presence of right heart dysfunction and the occurrence of acute kidney failure, digestive disorders, hypoxemia and a prolonged stay in intensive care. The presence of a congestive condition is medically treatable since diuretic decongestion is associated with improved cardiac outcomes.

It is therefore necessary, in an intensive care context, to be able to define and diagnose this state of venous congestion, to study its prevalence, and to confirm the existence of a link with organ failure in order to pave the way to known adapted treatment options.