Professor Dan Horner, Director of NCA’s Centre for Emergency Care and Trauma Sciences, has contributed to a new national report and recommendations for improving management of people with abnormal blood sodium levels.
The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) report A Balanced Solution makes five recommendations:
- Develop care bundles and training to reduce variation in the assessment and management of abnormal blood sodium levels.
- Improve the clinical assessment of fluid status in all patients.
- Integrate test results into patient electronic records to help identify trends in blood sodium levels.
- Standardise the use and the dosing of hypertonic saline solution.
- Document and communicate all medication changes to all healthcare providers and patients.
It also suggests further research on:
- Whether postoperative fluid protocols should be adjusted for weight and/or size, to reduce the risk of hyponatraemia and other electrolyte disturbances occurring.
- How quickly clinicians should act on abnormal blood sodium levels once reported and on the criteria for reporting rapidly dropping sodium results.
- The use of point-of-care ultrasound in the assessment of blood sodium levels.
Our hospitals also contributed to the data collection for the work over three months in 2023, with the joint second highest number of cases included.