Reduced volume isotonic saline 0.9% as maintenance fluid in children.

The statistics could have been extended to see how many children will be harmed if used hypotonic fluids compared to reduced volume isotonic fluids. The number needed to harm in this trial (to cause hyponatremia), if using hypotonic fluids, would be 1 in 4 at 24 hours (95% CI 1.9-15.2) and 48 hours (95% CI 1.9-11.8), which is higher compared to an earlier study [2]. The absolute risk increases by 30 percent if hypotonic fluids are used. However, the earlier trial used the same volume of fluids in both the participant groups which points towards a need of reduced volume rather than standard volume maintenance fluids apart from employing isotonic fluids, to reduce hyponatremia.