PERSPECTIVE
Hypernatraemic dehydration
Avoiding hypernatraemic dehydration in healthy term infants
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Neena Modi
Imperial College London, Chelsea and Westminster Campus, 369 Fulham Road, London, UK;n.modi@imperial.ac.uk
Perspective on the paper by van Dommelen et al (see page490)
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Hypernatraemic dehydration arises when there is a disproportionate deficit of body water relative to body sodium. Although the serum sodium concentration is elevated, whole body sodium content may be reduced, unchanged or increased. When the condition occurs in an otherwise healthy full term, breast-fed baby the cause is poor milk intake. In this situation there is loss of body sodium but a greater deficit in body water.
Hypernatraemic dehydration may have serious adverse consequences. At the most severe end of the spectrum these include cerebral oedema, convulsions, venous sinus thrombosis, intracranial haemorrhage, disseminated intravascular coagulation, renal failure, permanent brain injury and death. Infants admitted to hospital usually undergo extensive investigation and rehydration with intravenous fluids and formula. This has led to concern about how best to detect the condition, particularly in newborns in the community as biochemical testing would require referral to hospital. In this issue, a group
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