Workshop 19

Fluid and electrolytes: getting the balance right

Dr Peter Gosling

‘Urea and electrolytes’ must be the commonest request made of clinical biochemistry departments, yet most doctors or nurses are uncertain of how much salt and water a patient needs each day, and of the electrolyte content of the millions of litres of intravenous fluid given every year. The scale of inappropriate fluid management in the UK and the clinical problems it causes have been recently highlighted in the medical literature.

Authorising results in the laboratory places us in a good position to see undesirable trends in electrolyte results, and provides us with a golden opportunity to highlight (tactfully and constructively!) the possibility of inappropriate fluid therapy.

The aim of this workshop is to review some basic principles of fluid management, share some clinical cases and discuss the possibility of the Laboratory providing assistance in avoiding common fluid management errors.