Profile of Hypernatremia in a Tertiary care hospital: A review of 175 cases over a 5 year period in a South Indian population

0bjective: The aim of this study was to ascertain the profile of hypernatremia with an emphasis on the prevalence, development, progress and clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out at a tertiary care centre in south India from March 2011 to march 2016 and included 175 consecutive hospitalized patients who developed hypernatremia during the course of their management. Results: A total of 5558 patients were admitted as in-patients of which 175 patients developed hypernatremia resulting in a prevalence rate of 3.14%. The majority of patients were males -130 (74.28%) and 57 (32.55%) of the hypernatremic patients were geriatric. The most common disease condition of patients who developed hypernatremia was head injury-37(21.1%) followed by respiratory disease-23(13.1%), sepsis-17(9.7%) and transient hypernatremia-17(9.7%). 21 patients (12%) ended in mortality while the rest 154 (88%) recovered and were discharged from hospital. Patients in the mortality group were found to have higher levels of hypernatremia average162 when compared to those that survived 151 (p<0.05). Conclusion: While there are few reports devoted to hypernatremia in the Indian population, a standardized management protocol needs to be followed and physicians need to focus more on identifying patients who are likely to develop hypernatremia and take step to avoid it by pre-tagging and using preventive measures. This is probably one of the first studies of its kind in a south Indian population and could be an eye opener in the management of hypernatremic patients.