Muhammad Usman, Lutfullah Goheer, Muhammad Naeem Farid, Hafiz Abdul Quddus, Hafiz Muhammad Murtaza, Samra Maryum.
Episodes of Hypernatremic Dehydration in Children with Acute Diarrhea.
Pak Paed J Jan ;46(2):115-9.

Objective: To determine the episodes of hypernatremia in children having acute diarrhea with dehydration. Study Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pediatrics, CMH Multan from March 2019 to Sep 2019 Material and Methods: 175 children with acute diarrhea were included in this study. Blood sample was taken within 24 hour of hospitalization and sent for serum sodium levels to see hypernatremia. Results: Of these 175 children having acute diarrhea, 107 (61.1 %) were male patients while 68 (38.9 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 35.62 +- 13.46 months (ranging from 6 months to 60 months. Source of drinking water was hand pumps in 81 (46.3%) and filtered water was being consumed by 94 (53.7%). Mean duration of disease (diarrhea) in these study cases was 4.92 +- 1.17 days. Mean serum sodium level was noted to be 138.24 +- 4.26 mmol/L and hypernatremia was noted to be in 33 (18.9%) of our study cases. Conclusion: Hypernatremia is a common presentation of childhood diarrheal diseases. Frequency of hypernatremia was high in children with acute diarrhea in our study. So hypernatremia needs to be considered side by side along with treatment protocol of acute diarrhea.

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