Acid-base disorders: learning the basics.

Nutrition support practitioners should be confident in their ability to recognize and treat various metabolic and respiratory disorders encountered in daily practice. A clinician's comprehension of the underlying physiologic processes and/or exogenous causes that occur during acid-base disorders is essential when making therapeutic decisions regarding fluids, parenteral nutrition, and electrolyte management. This invited review will discuss basic metabolic and respiratory disorders while briefly addressing mixed acid-base disorders.

Simple acid-base tutorial.

The nutrition support practitioner is confronted with numerous metabolic abnormalities in the daily care of patients. An understanding of the basic principles of acid-base balance, along with the ability to recognize common causes of the various disorders, enhances the clinician's ability to provide specialized nutrition support. The basic metabolic and respiratory disorders, along with common causes, are reviewed in this tutorial.