Mortality and serum sodium: do patients die from or with hyponatremia?

Background And Objectives: Severe hyponatremia (<120 mEq/L) in hospitalized patients has a high mortality rate. We hypothesized that underlying diseases causing hyponatremia attribute to mortality rather than hyponatremia itself.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: The relationship between mortality and serum sodium (sNa) was examined in 45,693 patients admitted to a single community teaching hospital between January 1996 and December 2007.

Hypertonic saline for hyponatremia: risk of inadvertent overcorrection.

Background And Objectives: Data regarding dosage-response relationships for using hypertonic saline in treatment of hyponatremia are extremely limited. Objectives of this study were to assess adherence to previously published guidelines (limiting correction to <12 mEq/L per d and <18 mEq/L per 48 h) in treating hyponatremia with hypertonic saline and to determine the predictive accuracy of the Adrogué-Madias formula.

Design, Setting, Participants & Measurements: A retrospective review was conducted of all 62 adult, hyponatremic patients who were treated with hypertonic saline during 5 yr at a 528-bed, acute care, teaching hospital.