Purpose
To determine how serum selenium and zinc affect the outcomes of critically ill surgical patients. Methods: The medical records of 162 patients admitted to a surgical intensive care unit (ICU) from October 2010 to July 2012 and managed for more than 3 days were retrospectively investigated. Results: The mean patient age was 61.2 years and median ICU stay was three days. The mean Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation II score was 18.0. Eighteen of the study subjects (11.1%) died in the ICU. The mean selenium levels were 83.5±24.4 ng/dl in those who survived versus 83.3±29.6 ng/dl in those who died. The mean zinc levels were 46.3±21.7 μg/dl in the survivors and 65.6±41.6 μg/dl in those who died. The mean selenium concentrations were significantly different in shock and non-shock patients (77.9±25.4 ng/dl, 87.2±23.1 ng/dl; p=0.017). Furthermore, mean serum selenium was lower in patients with sepsis than in traumatic or simply postoperative patients (p＜0.001, p=0.038). Serum Zn was significantly lower in patients with sepsis than in trauma patients (43.4±25.4 μg/dl vs. 54.8±28.1 μg/dl; p=0.038).Conclusion: To determine the effects of serum selenium and zinc levels in critically ill surgical patients, a large-scale prospective study is needed. In critically ill surgical patients, serum selenium levels of the patients with shock were lower than that of non-schock patients. However, serum selenium and zinc leves did not show the significance to determine the patient's outcome. (J Acute Care Surg 2014;4:18-23)
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