Patient's question:
What kind of diseases can be treated in general internal medicine? What is hyperosmolar dehydration?Doctor's answer:
Hello, Hypertonic dehydration is a type of dehydration where both water and sodium are lost, but the loss of water is greater than the loss of sodium, causing serum sodium levels to fall below the normal range and extracellular fluid to become hypertonic. This is primarily caused by the following two factors: 1. Insufficient water intake, such as trauma, confusion, difficulty swallowing due to esophageal diseases, inability to defecate, or consuming large amounts of hypertonic saline solutions. 2. Excessive water loss that is not promptly replenished. Therefore, treatment focuses on addressing the underlying cause to prevent further water loss while replenishing the lost fluids.