Prevalence and factors associated with hyponatremia in older adults who visited emergency department

Objectives@#Hyponatremia is prevalent electrolyte disorder and can be fatal in older adults. Evaluative studies on hyponatremia among older adults are scarce, especially targeting for those who visited emergency department (ED). We aimed to estimate the prevalence and to identify risk factors of hyponatremia among elderly patients visiting the ED. @*Methods@#A retrospective chart review was completed including 65 or older patients who visited ED at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from September to December 2019. Patients with the serum sodium concentration of less than 130mEq/L was defined as a hyponatremia group. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess predictive factors for hyponatremia. @*Results@#Of the total 2,445 patients, 155 (6.3%) were confirmed to have hyponatremia at the time of ED visits. Risk factors for hyponatremia identified in logistic regression analysis were thiazides (aOR=2.64, 95% CI 1.66-4.21), opioids (exclude tramadol) (aOR=3.45, 95% CI 1.72-6.94), and desmopressin (aOR=6.98, 95% CI 2.45-19.84). Compared to the use of thiazides alone, it was confirmed that the possibility of hyponatremia was more than quadrupled when proton pump inhibitor (PPI) was used together (aOR=4.08, 95% CI 1.74-9.55). @*Conclusions@#About 6.3% of older adults visiting the ED had hyponatremia. Age, number of medications taken, previous history of hyponatremia, heart failure, cirrhosis, pneumonia, sepsis, prescribed drugs including thiazides, opioids (exclude tramadol), or desmopressin or taking PPI together with thiazides was confirmed to correlate with the risk of hyponatremia.

Clinical Outcomes of Nutritional Supply in Critically Ill Patients in the Prone Position

PURPOSE: Enteral nutrition is recommended in critically ill patients. On the other hand, the recommendation of nutritional support is limited and often controversial in critically ill patients in the prone position. Therefore, this study evaluated the clinical outcomes of nutritional support in critically ill patients in the prone position. METHODS: A retrospective evaluation of the electronic medical records was conducted, including adult patients who were in the medical intensive care unit (ICU) in the prone position in Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from May 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017. The patients' characteristics, nutritional support status while they were in the prone position, mortality in ICU and during hospitalization, ICU length of stay, mechanical ventilation days, and complications, such as ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) and vomiting were collected. RESULTS: In total, 100 patients were included. Of these, 12 received enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition and 88 received only parenteral nutrition. The groups were similar in terms of age, sex, number of comorbidity, weight, PaO₂/FiO₂, hours of prone position, Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II), Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. No differences were observed in ICU mortality (75.0% vs. 46.6%; P=0.065), hospital mortality (83.3% vs. 58.0%; P=0.081), ICU length of stay (22.2±14.6 vs. 18.2±21.2; P=0.128) and mechanical ventilation days (19.3±14.8 vs. 14.5±19.1; P=0.098). In addition, there were no differences in the possible complications of the prone position, such as VAP (8.3% vs. 4.5%; P=0.480) and vomiting (8.3% vs. 1.1%; P=0.227). CONCLUSION: No significant differences in the clinical outcomes were observed. Further studies will be needed to confirm the way of nutrition support while in the prone position.

Analysis of Current Use of Early Parenteral Nutrition and Clinical Significance of Non-protein Calorie: Nitrogen in Surgical Critically Ill Patients

PUROPOSE: Surgical critically ill patients require adequate nutrition support and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.) guidelines recommend low non-protein calorie:nitrogen ratio (NPC:N ratio, 70~100) for critically ill pateints. In this study, we assess the current use of early parenteral nutrition of surgical critically ill patients and analyze the clinical significance of NPC:N. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of critically ill adult patients who remained in the intensive care unit (ICU) for over 3 days and could not receive enteral nutrition for the first 7 days. Data on parenteral intake of patients were collected from electronic medical records. Association of NPC:N scores with clinical outcome (length of ICU stay, length; of hospital stay, duration of ventilation, and mortality) were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression. RESULTS: The study included 72 cases, average parenteral calorie intake was 14.6 kcal/kg/day and protein intake was 0.5 g/kg/day. We assessed the NPC:N scores to determine the patients' NPC:N for the first 7 days in ICU close to the A.S.P.E.N guidelines. NPC:N scores showed weak negative correlation with length of hospital stay and duration of mechanical ventilation (r=-0.259, P=0.028; r=-0.495, P=0.001). Multiple regression adjusted with APACHE (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation) II score, age, and body mass index showed correlation of higher NPC:N score with decreased length of hospital stay and shorter duration of ventilation (P=0.0001, P=0.035, respectively). However, length of ICU stay and mortality within 60 days showed no significant correlation with NPC:N scores. CONCLUSION: Parenteral calories and protein intakes of critically ill patients in ICU were lower in comparison to A.S.P.E.N. recommendation in this study. Low NPC:N scores might be related to shorter length of hospital stay, duration of mechanical ventilation. Consultation of a nutritional support team could have a positive effect in providing appropriate nutrition support.