Study of etiology, clinical features and outcome following treatment of hyponatremia in elderly in intensive care unit

Background: Hyponatremia is a common electrolyte disturbance in the hospitalized elderly sick patients. Objectives: To study etiology, clinical features and outcome following treatment of hyponatremia in elderly hospitalized patients. Materials and methods: All elderly patients being admitted to ICU were screened for hyponatremia and 100 patients with severe hyponatremia (<125 meq/L) were included in this study, these patients were investigated as per the protocol and were treated as per the standardized regimen. Results: 100 patients with severe hyponatremia (<125 mEq/L) were studied. There was female preponderance of cases (55%). The common causes of hyponatremia were SIADH (30%) and drugs (24%) of which diuretics (79%) was a major chunk. The common CNS symptoms were drowsiness, lethargy and irrelevant talk. The common co-morbid conditions were hypertension (62%) and diabetes mellitus (51%). Females tolerated hyponatremia better than males with mortality of 9.09% in females and 33.33% in males (p=0.0026). 20 (20%) patients succumbed to their primary illness with a possible contribution attributable to hyponatremia or its treatment. Conclusion: Hyponatremia is common in females and they seem to better tolerate it than their male counterparts. Early detection, strict adherence to treatment protocol is required. Diuretics should be used with caution in elderly.