Retrospective evaluation of newborn cases who were followed up with the diagnosis of hypernatremic dehydration

Aim: The aim of our study is to evaluate the demographic characteristics and epidemiological risk factors of neonatal hypernatremic dehydration and to discuss the precautions applied in our clinic in order to reduce the number of dehydration cases in the light of the literature. Patients and Methods: Newborns who were hospitalized in our neonatal intensive care unit with the diagnosis of HD, whose serum sodium level was >147 mmol/L and born at >37 weeks were evaluated retrospectively. Babies with illnesses that would adversely affect nutritional status were excluded from the study. Results: Mean gestational week of 54 cases included in the study was 39.19±1.07.22. The mean birth weight was 3244.06±458.46 gr. while the mean weight of hospitalization was 2880.28±514.54 gr. The percent of weight loss was found to be 8.51±3.14%. The mean age of hospitalization was 3.7±2.05 days and the mean duration of hospitalization day was 2.26±1.42 days. On admission, 11 (20.4%) patients had fever, 6 (11.1%) patients had jaundice, 3 (5.6%) patients had discomfort, 30 (55.5%) patients had more than one complaint and dehydration was detected in 4 (7.4%) patients during control admission of pediatric outpatient clinic. On physical examination, 46 (85.2%) patients had mild dehydration, 7 (13%) had moderate dehydration, and 1 (1.9%) patient had severe dehydration. The mean serum sodium value of the patients was 150.44±3.62 mmol/L, mean serum urea value was 45.5±18.13 mg/dl, and mean serum creatinine value was 0.79±0.34 mg/dl at the time of admission. The etiologies of dehydration were breast milk insufficiency in 37 (68.5%) cases, inability to breastfeed effectively due to nipple problems in 2 (3.7%) cases, and errors in breastfeeding technique in 15 (27.7%) cases. A positive correlation was found between the degree of dehydration and percent of weight loss and the serum sodium value (p