Dehydration in the elderly treated in the emergency room of the regional hospital.

El Escorial Hospital. Madrid. Spain. Introduction: At this time, there is no absolute definition of dehydration that can be useful in clinical practice. The term dehydration refers to several conditions associated with loss of total body fluids. The terms commonly known in clinical practice to describe this situation are fluid deficit, volume depletion, and dehydration. The actual incidence of dehydration is unknown and probably underestimated. There is an important limitation of its diagnosis due to the lack of standardized methods to measure the quantity of li quids in the body. The variation in weight is the process most commonly used to measure the total loss of liquids in the body to determinate dehydration. This is not feasible in patients seen in the emergency department, a fact that has favored the use of other indicators in daily clinical practice. Dehydration underlies many clinical symptoms. Therefore, dehydration diagnosis should be present as a probable cause in the presence the above mentioned risk factors. Among these risk factors are extreme ages of life. The elderly have a higher risk of dehydration compared to the general population.