Electrolyte imbalance in the patients admitted to the emergency department of the tertiary care hospital of smhs hospital, Srinagar

Background: Water comprises 45% - 60% of the body weight and total body water being divided into intracellular fluid (ICF) and extracellular fluid (ECF). The principal electrolytes in the ECF are sodium, chloride and bicarbonate, with other ions (such as potassium, calcium and magnesium) in much lower concentrations. In the ICF potassium and magnesium are the primary cations with phosphate and sulfate being the major anions and other ions in lower concentrations. Materials and Methods: A total of 3231 patients over 18 years of age and gender matched participated in the study. Lab investigations like Serum Electrolytes (Na/K), Kidney function test (KFT) and Blood sugar was done on fully automatic Siemens Biochemistry Analyser (Germany) in the casualty lab of Biochemistry, SMHS Hospital Srinagar. Results: Hyponatremia was observed overall in 21.4% patients with 22.2% males and 20.5% females. Hypernatremia was seen in 1.1% of the studied group among whom 0.8% were females and 1.3% were males. Hypokalemia was observed in 32.2% of the patients among whom, 32.8% were females and 31.7% were males. Hyperkalemia was found overall in 8.0% of the patients with 8.4% males and 7.4% females. In this study 59.8% patients were found to have normal levels of potassium with equal percentage of 59% in both males and females. Discussion and Conclusion: Patients admitted to the emergency department with electrolyte imbalance requires close evaluation and frequent lab draws depending on the duration and severity of underlying disease states. This being important not only to monitor the symptomatic improvement or signs of the disease state, but also to track the rate of correction (and prevent over-correction).