Prevalence of Hyponatremia in Intensive Care Unit Patients With Brain Injury in Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Kashan During 2012

Background Hyponatremia is a common disorder in patients with brain injury. It can result in acute and chronic complications providing this electrolytic disorder is not diagnosed and treated in due time. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of hyponatremia in 95 patients with brain injury hospitalized in the intensive care unit in Shahid Beheshti hospital of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Patients and Methods This trans-sectional study was conducted on brain injury patients (brain traumas, brain hemorrhage, meningitis and brain tumors) during their six-month stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Shahid Beheshti hospital. The data was then analyzed after excluding cases of pseudohyponatremia. Results Among the 95 patients with brain injury, mean age was 42.85 ± 22.59 years, while the hyponatremic patients had a mean age of 48.37 ± 24.03 years of which 69.5% were male and 30.5% were female. Prevalence and occurrence of hyponatremia were 31.6% and 9.29 ± 6.8 days, respectively. This study revealed no meaningful differences between age, sex, underlying disease and prevalence of hyponatremia. Conclusions Our study showed an elevated frequency of hyponatremia in patients with brain injuries in the intensive care unit which demands effective approaches for accurate and timely diagnosis of this electrolyte disorder.