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Electrolyte – Sodium

Hypernatremia

This is a common electrolyte problem that is caused by a high concentration of sodium in

one’s blood. It most often occurs in people who take little water. This is due to impaired thirst or

mental judgment. A good example is someone with dementia (Obialo, John and Bashir, 2015).

signs & symptoms

The most severe symptoms are caused by brain dysfunction. Severe hypernatremia can lead to:

Confusion Coma Lack of energy

Death Muscle twitching

Fatigue Seizures

Treatment

Hypernatremia can occur within 24 hours or develop slowly with time, often more than

28 hours. The speed of its growth will help your doctor determine a good treatment plan suitable

for you. All diagnosis procedures are based on the collection of fluid and sodium in your body.

Rapidly developing hypernatremia will be treated more aggressively than hypernatremia that

develops more slowly (Mujawar and Jaiswal, 2015). In some cases, you may be able to treat the

medical condition, after increasing your fluid intake (Given, 2014). For other severe cases, you

will supposedly be connected to an IV drip. The IV drop is used to supply fluids to your blood.

Your doctor will also monitor you to see if your sodium levels in the body are neutralizing,

depending on their findings, they may adjust your fluid concentration.

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Hyponatremia

Hyponatremia - This is a medical condition that occurs when the level of sodium in one’s

blood is low.

Symptoms

Hyponatremia symptoms may include:

vomiting irritability

Seizures Muscle weakness

spasms Coma

Drowsiness

Medical conditions

 Medications. Some medications, for example, antidepressants, and pain

medications, can interfere with the normal hormonal and kidney processes that keep

sodium within a healthy range.

 Heart and liver problems. Diseases affecting the kidneys and the liver can cause

fluids to accumulate in your body, which dilutes the sodium in your body, thus

lowering the level of sodium in your body

 Syndrome of inappropriate hormones - Here, high levels of the anti-diuretic

hormones are produced, causing your body to retain water instead of excreting it

normally in the urine.

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 Vomiting. This causes your body to lose a lot of water thus causing dehydration,

due to lack of electrolytes.

 Drinking too many fluids. - Drinking excessive amounts of fluids can cause lower

the level of sodium due to excretion of water.

 Hormonal changes -Addison's disease affects your glands' ability to produce

hormones that help maintain your body's balance of sodium and water.

 Recreational-drug Ecstasy - This ecstasy adds up the risk of getting severe fatal

cases of hyponatremia.

Treatment

To treat this disease, the doctor may advise temporarily cutting back on fluids.

Medications, here, your physician may give you certain antibiotics to manage the symptoms of

hyponatremia, for example, headaches. For intravenous fluids, the medical practitioner can

advise you to use sodium iv solutions to raise the level of sodium in the blood.
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Reference

Given, S., 2014. Hypernatremia. Nursing, 40(10), p.72.

Obialo, C., John, S. and Bashir, K., 2015. Iatrogenic hypernatremia in hemodialysis patients: A
result of erroneous online conductivity monitor and conductivity meter
reading. Hemodialysis International, 21(4), pp.E73-E75.