Factores asociados a la incidencia de hipernatremia intrahospitalaria en pacientes adultos de un servicio de Medicina de Lima, Perú.

Objectives: To identify variables associated with hypernatremia in adult patients admitted in an internal medicine service in a general hospital in Lima, Peru. Methods: Case-control study of patients admitted in the Internal Medicine service of Hospital Cayetano Heredia during 2013. A sample size of 65 cases and controls, matched by date of admission and Glasgow coma scale, to obtain an OR of 3 with 80% power and 95% confidence was estimated. Results: Hypernatremia was associated with fever (p=0.013); tachypnea (p=0.030); level of consciousness (p=0.032); use of diuretics (p=0.017); presence of diarrhea (p=0.045) and use of hypertonic solutions (p<0.0001). Acute renal failure and sepsis showed association in the univariate analysis but not in the logistic regression analysis. Conclusions: This study showed that fever, tachypnea, level of consciousness, use of diuretics, diarrhea and use of hypertonic solutions were relevant to develop hospital-acquired hypernatremia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]