General characteristics of patients with electrolyte imbalance admitted to emergency department
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Fluid and electrolyte balance is a key concept to understand for maintaining homeostasis, and for a successful treatment of many metabolic disorders. There are various regulating mechanisms for the equilibrium of electrolytes in organisms. Disorders of these mechanisms result in electrolyte imbalances that may be life-threatening clinical conditions. In this study we defined the electrolyte imbalance characteristics of patients admitted to our emergency department. METHODS: This study was conducted in the Emergency Department (ED) of Uludag University Faculty of Medicine, and included 996 patients over 18 years of age. All patients had electrolyte imbalance, with various etiologies other than traumatic origin. Demographic and clinical parameters were collected after obtaining informed consent from the patients. The ethical committee of the university approved this study. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 59.28±16.79, and 55% of the patients were male. The common symptoms of the patients were dyspnea (14.7%), fever (13.7%), and systemic deterioration (11.9%); but the most and least frequent electrolyte imbalances were hyponatremia and hypermagnesemia, respectively. Most frequent findings in physical examination were confusion (14%), edema (10%) and rales (9%); and most frequent pathological findings in ECG were tachycardia in 24%, and atrial fibrillation in 7% of the patients. Most frequent comorbidity was malignancy (39%). Most frequent diagnoses in the patients were sepsis (11%), pneumonia (9%), and acute renal failure (7%). CONCLUSIONS: Electrolyte imbalances are of particular importance in the treatment of ED patients. Therefore, ED physicians must be acknowledged of their fluid-electrolyte balance dynamics and general characteristics.
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Delays in identifying electrolyte abnormalities in critically ill patients can significantly increase the risk of morbidity and mortality.
“In critically ill patients, delays in identifying electrolyte abnormalities can significantly increase the risk of morbidity and mortality, making rapid and accurate testing essential [1].”
From Reliability of Point-of-Care Venous Blood Gas Testing for Potassium and Sodium Compared to Central Laboratory Results in Emergency Patients: A Clinical Audit (2025) · cites this paper as [1]
The Discussion (page unavailable) says sodium imbalances are associated with increased mortality in patients needing intensive care and notes that hypomagnesemia is often overlooked. It does not show that delays in identifying electrolyte abnormalities increase morbidity or mortality, or establish a need for rapid testing. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Lasfer, C., Lahib, A., Soliman, K., & Gouda, S. (2025) · Cureus · doi:10.7759/cureus.89106
- Authors
- Balcı, A. K., Koksal, O., Kose, A., Armagan, E., Ozdemir, F., Inal, T., & Oner, N.
- Affiliations
- Bursa Uludağ Üni̇versi̇tesi̇ (TR)
- ORCID
- Balcı, Arif Kadri
- Venue
- World Journal of Emergency Medicine
- Publisher
- World Journal of Emergency Medicine
- Published
- 2013
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 113
- ISSN
- 1920-8642 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4129840
- OpenAlex
- W2107824237
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 1.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- World Journal of Emergency Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Bursa Uludag University - AVESIS (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Electrolyte and hormonal disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Emergency and Acute Care Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Potassium and Related Disorders
- Keywords
- electrolyte imbalance, fluid and electrolyte balance, emergency department patients, hyponatremia, hypermagnesemia, sepsis, pneumonia, acute kidney injury, comorbidities
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