STUDY OF HYPONATREMIA IN HOSPITALISED ELDERLY PATIENTS

Harshita Ganji*, Reddy Prasad Kondaveeti and Prabhakar Kamarthy

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Disorders of sodium and water metabolism are common in hospitalized patients and are occasionally encountered in outpatients. The amount of sodium in blood plasma is typically 140mmol/L. Hyponatremia is defined as serum sodium concentration of less than 135 mEq per litre. It is estimated that nearly 7 percent of healthy elderly persons have serum sodium concentrations of 135mEq/L or less. Material and Methods: It is a Retrospective study of patients above the age of 60 yrs, admitted and treated in R.L. Jalappa Hospital in the Department of General Medicine. Patients above the age of 60 years and patients whose serum sodium less than 135mMol/L are included. Data regarding general and systemic clinical examination, investigation namely – Serum Sodium, Serum Osmolality, Urine Osmolality, Urine Spot Sodium, Thyroid Function Tests, chest X-ray, CT brain and stay in MICU/ICU will be collected from the hospital records. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 14 software. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Out of 86 patients, 48.83% were belonging to age group of 61-65 years and 23.25% were belonging to age group of 66-70 years. Mean age was 68.55+/-7.7 years. 58.1% were males and 41.9% were females. Amongst presenting symptoms the most common presenting symptoms was altered sensorium which was present in 50%. Amongst etiology, renal failure was the most common etiology in this study.

Keywords: Hyponatremia, altered sensorium, renal failure.