Calcium chloride versus calcium gluconate: comparison of ionization and cardiovascular effects in children and dogs.

A randomized prospective study in both children and dogs compared ionization of calcium chloride and calcium gluconate. Five conditioned dogs under halothane anesthesia received calcium chloride (4, 8, 12 mg/kg) and calcium gluconate (14, 28, 42 mg/kg) intravenously. Ten children scheduled for burn wound excision and grafting received both calcium chloride (2.5 mg/kg) and calcium gluconate (7.5 mg/kg) injected through a central venous cannula. Ionized calcium was measured at 0, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, and 10 min in the children, and 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, and 45 min in the dogs. The authors conclude that equal elemental calcium doses of calcium gluconate (10%) and calcium chloride (10%) (approximately 3:1), injected over the same period of time, are equivalent in their ability to raise [Ca++] during normocalcemic states in children and dogs; the changes in [Ca++] following calcium administration are short-lived (minutes); rapidity of ionization seems to exclude hepatic metabolism as an important factor in the dissociation of calcium gluconate; and equivalent rises in [Ca++] produced by calcium gluconate or calcium chloride resulted in equivalent cardiovascular effects. The authors feel that either form of calcium salt would be satisfactory if indicated during cardiopulmonary resuscitation or for the treatment of ionized hypocalcemia due to massive blood transfusion.