Introduction:

the administration of fluids represents a first-line therapeutic intervention. However, this often leads to fluid overload, which is associated with high mortality.

Objective:

to describe the association of peripheral edema measured by ultrasound with daily accumulated water balance and to compare its correlation with Godet’s sign.

Material and methods:

adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit with more than 24 hours of stay and clinical data of fluid overload.

Design:

this is an observational, prospective, longitudinal, single-blind, pilot study. Sample calculation n = 72 patients.

Results:

the median age was 45 years, 96.6% were on mechanical ventilation, all patients presented their outcome in the adjusted multivariate analysis, and it was found that there is an association of Godet’s sign with the measurement of edema by ultrasound, finding a strong correlation explained by an R2 87% p = 0.0001. Finally, another regression of milliliters of accumulated water balance associated with milliliters of edema measured by ultrasound was performed, finding an R2 82% (95% CI 1.47-3.70 p = 0.0001) interpreted as a strong association.

Conclusions:

Godet’s sign was strongly associated with the millimeters of edema measured by ultrasound; it also has a strong association between the balance of fluid accumulated per day with the millimeters of edema that increase in the peripheral tissue due to overload per day.