Letter
Hypernatremia and intracranial pressure: more questions than answers
1 Department of Medicine, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia, 855 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9, Canada
2 Department of Anesthesia, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Department of Medicine, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia, 855 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9, Canada
3 Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, 828 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9, Canada
Critical Care 2012, 17:401 doi:10.1186/cc11888
See related research by Wells et al., http://ccforum.com/content/16/5/R193
Published: 7 January 2013Abstract
The observational literature suggests that hypernatremia is associated with worse outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury. In a previous issue of Critical Care, Wells and colleagues add to this literature by failing to show an association between hypernatremia and reduced intracranial pressure. However, we must bear in mind many limitations of observational methods before eliminating hyperosmolar therapy from our armamentarium.
