Lactic Acidosis: Recognition, Kinetics,
and Associated Prognosis
Vernon C., & Le Tourneau J. Crit Care Clin 2010; (26): 255–283
"Lactic acidosis in the setting of severe illness has a history dating back into the 1800s when Johann Joseph Scherer first measured lactic acid levels in postmortem blood from two women dying of puerperal fever. Subsequently, Folwarczny in 1858 described elevated lactate levels in a living patient with leukemia and was later followed by Salomon in 1878, who observed increased lactate levels in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, solid tumors, and congestive heart failure. Several years later, Fletcher described how lactic acid was produce by skeletal muscle under anaerobic conditions, noting that when oxygen was readily available, it ‘‘either restrains by some guidance of chemical event the yield of acid in the muscle, or is able to remove it after its production.’’
These observations made more than 100 years ago represent the groundwork laid in understanding of lactic acid in the disease states of critically ill patients."