Frequency of Hyponatremia in Intensive Care Unit

Background: Hyponatremia is often a common and overlooked complication in ICU. There is scarcity of data reporting in our setup. We aimed to find the frequency of hyponatremia in ICU patients. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study conducted at Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital, for a duration of 6 months in intensive care unit of the hospital. 150 patients were included as per inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the data about age, gender and co-morbidities was recorded on a Performa. The presence or absence of hyponatremia was also noted. All the collected data. Results: The mean age of the patient was 62.06 ± 9.80 years.100 (66.7%) were male and 50 (33.3%) were females. The frequency of hyponatremia came out to be 24% (36 patients). Hyponatremia was significantly associated with age greater than 60 years but was not associated with diabetes and hypertension. Conclusion: The frequency of hyponatremia in ICU patients is significantly high. Its prevalence is related with age of the patient. A larger multicenter study to explore other contributing factors is recommended.