BACKGROUND Our objective was to study the risk factors and mechanisms of hypernatraemia in critically ill patients, a common and potentially serious problem. METHODS In 2005, all patients admitted to the medical, surgical or neurological intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital were reviewed. A 1:2 matched case-control study was performed, defining cases as patients who developed a ...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence and outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired hypernatraemia (IAH). METHODS A retrospective analysis was performed on a prospectively collected database fed by 12 ICUs. Subjects are unselected patients with ICU stay >48 h. Mild and moderate to severe hypernatraemia were defined as serum sodium >145 and >150 mmol/L, respective...

BACKGROUND Hypernatraemia is common in inpatients and is associated with substantial morbidity. Its differential diagnosis is challenging, and delayed treatment may have devastating consequences. The most important hormone for the regulation of water homeostasis is arginine vasopressin, and copeptin, the C-terminal portion of the precursor peptide of arginine vasopressin, might be a reliable ne...

A boy aged 4 months 7 days was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Dhaka Hospital of icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh, with the problems of acute watery diarrhoea with some dehydration, pneumonia, lethargy, and hypernatraemia (serum sodium of 201 mmol/L). Correction for hypernatraemia was tried by using only oral rehydration salt (ORS) solution. Seizures occurred during correction of the...

During the 5-year period 1973--77 there was a considerable change in infant feeding practice (the use of low solute cows' milk formulae instead of high solute formulae and the later introduction of solid foods into the diet) which should have led to a reduced incidence of hypernatraemia among infants admitted to hospital with gastroenteritis. We have compared the incidence of hypernatraemia in ...

INTRODUCTION Although sodium disturbances are common in hospitalised patients, few studies have specifically investigated the epidemiology of sodium disturbances in the intensive care unit (ICU). The objectives of this study were to describe the incidence of ICU-acquired hyponatraemia and hypernatraemia and assess their effects on outcome in the ICU. METHODS We identified 8142 consecutive adu...

Severe hypernatraemia in a hospital population should be an avoidable problem. We have looked at its causes and incidence over one year and have shown that serious hypernatraemia (serum sodium greater than 160 mmol/l) as a manifestation of severe dehydration is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. Failure to maintain adequate fluid intake, intentional or unintentional, was the most f...

Hypogonadal men may experience intense vasomotor symptoms, and vasomotor sweating can occasionally be associated with profound fluid losses. We describe a 37-year-old male, who exhibited persistent hypovolaemic hypernatraemia that was challenging to treat despite a continuous high fluid input (>4-5 L/day). He was noted to have drenching sweats and normochromic anaemia. He had recent traumatic h...

A 6-month-old female Staffordshire bull terrier cross presented to the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital with lethargy, weakness, decreased appetite, abnormal vocalisation, twitching of the facial muscles and ears, circling, alopecia, pruritus, seborrhoea sicca and erythema. Serum biochemistry revealed severe hypernatraemia (200.4 mmol/L; Reference Interval 140 mmol/L - 155 mmol/L). Tr...