© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group & Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
DEBATE
Maintenance fluid therapy
What routine intravenous maintenance fluids should be used?
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr N P Mann
Npmann2{at}aol.com
An introduction to the debate
Keywords: fluid maintenance; debate
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Intravenous maintenance fluid is widely used in general paediatric practice and more children who come into hospital receive intravenous fluid than in the past. The intravenous route is frequently used because enteral maintenance or rehydration treatment is more labour intensive and uses valuable staff time; furthermore modern pumps for delivery of fluids are safe. Nevertheless in developing countries the enteral route is still more widely used even for sick dehydrated children.
Are there are any dangers of intravenous fluids? Clearly there is a possibility of miscalculation of infusion rates and also the potential for mistakes in terms of dosing errors with additives. It has been widely recognised in recent years that there is a high incidence of hyponatraemia in children treated with intravenous maintenance fluids. Is this because of excessive water or too little salt?
Moritz and Ayus discussed the high frequency of hyponatraemia in these children
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