Hypernatremia In Hospital Cancer Essay - 1516 Words

Hypernatremia in Hospitalized Cancer Patients Ufemia C. McCoy Azusa Pacific University Introduction Hypernatremia in Hospitalized Cancer Patients. The purpose of this article was to research the occurrence of hypernatremia in hospitalized cancer patients and the influence it had on the clinical outcomes and healthcare expenses. â€Å"Patients with cancer are at high risk of fluid and electrolytes disorders, the common factors related to this include chemotherapy and other anti cancer agents, steroid therapy, surgical procedures, or renal pathology† (Salahudeen, Doshi, Shah, 2013). The disequilibrium of electrolyte influences and predicts survival in cancer patients. This study aimed to assess the frequency†¦show more content†¦The data from cancer registry was utilized to confirm the influence of hypernatremia on the mortality rate. The study also compared two groups, patients with hypernatremia on admission and hospital acquired hypernatremia â€Å"(ie., patients with normal serum sodium on admission but had peak serum sodium above normal after admission)â €  (Salahudeen, Doshi, Shah, 2013). Results Hypernatremia and Hospitalized Acquired Hypernatremia. When the patients were admitted to the hospital 69.9% were in the eunatremic range, 29.9% were in the hyponatremic range and 0.2% were in the hypernatremia range. During the hospital stay the values were taken again on each patient, 51.8% were in the eunatremic range, 45.6% were in the hyponatremic range and 2.6% in the hypernatremic range concluding that hypernatremia was increased after admission and during the hospital stay. The patients with hypernatremia increased over ten times from the initial admission, only seven patients were admitted with hypernatremia and it increased to 90 patients during the hospital stay. Hypernatremia was more prevalent in patients with hematological malignancies. Those receiving chemotherapy at admission and admitted to the critical care unit were commonly leukemia and stem cell transplant patients suggesting that the patients who acquired hypernatremic were severely ill. Length of Hospital Stay. The