• medgremlin@midwest.social
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    24 days ago

    Half-normal saline would make hyponatremia substantially worse. Half-normal saline has half as much salt and is much closer to plain water. If he has water retention problems and issues with hyponatremia, he should be getting hypertonic saline which is 3% NaCl. For reference, normal saline is 0.9% NaCl, half-normal saline is 0.45% NaCl. Not enough NaCl is what can lead to “overhydration”.

    Edit: Also, most ambulances carry normal saline and not much else. They might have Lactated Ringers solution, but they don’t have all the different concentrations of saline on the rig. There’s just not enough space when the vast majority of patients just need isotonic (normal saline) fluids.