Original article
English
S . Bughrara, A. AL-Tawaty, S. AL-Ghazal, F. Shadoon
Al-Arab Medical University, Paediatric Department, Elfateh Children’s Hospital, Benghazi, Libya
JMJ Vol. 2, No. 2 (September 2002): 49-51
Abstract
A prospective study was carried out on hypernatraemic dehydration AL-Fatah Children’s Hospital, Benghazi, Libya with the aim of knowing its incidence, clinical features and identifying its possible risk factors. The study involved 1273 patients admitted to the infectious diseases section of gastroenterology ward over the year 1995. Twenty- eight infants were found to be hypernatraemic giving an incidence of 2.2%, twenty- seven 96% were on artificial milk. None of the infants was on exclusive breast milk feeding. Pneumonia was found in 11(393.28%) patients. There was no significant correlation between serum sodium level and frequency, duration or consistency of diarrhea, temperature, convulsions or existence of pneumonia. However, this study shows that the incidence of hypernatraemia in Benghazi is within the report range and that major risk factors are the young age, artificial feeding and existence of associated respiratory illness. It also shows that it is not possible to predict severity of hypernatremia from clinical features.
Keywords: Hypernatraemic dehydration, Artificial feeding
Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1238