From the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Renal Unit and Edinburgh Medical School
This is an elementary and staged approach to prescription of replacement fluids in hospital. See the important caution at the foot of the page.
- First work through the first 4 sections below. They contain essential information for understanding fluid prescribing
- Then use that information to prescribe fluids for the cases that follow
- Go back to the information pages when necessary
- Coping with fluid balance on the wards should then be easier
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INFORMATION
After each of these sections, use your browser's 'back' button to return to this page |
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| 1 | What are the fluid compartments? |
| 2 | What are the daily losses, gains and requirements? |
| 3 | What replacement fluids can I use? |
| 4 | What are the signs of too much/too little fluid? |
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CASES
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| 5 | Case 1 - Two days post-colectomy (simple - and includes new info about potassium replacement) |
| 6 | Case 2 - Three days after admission with diabetic ketoacidosis (more complicated - and includes new info on fluid replacement in unstable patients) |
| 7 | Case 3 - An 85 year old man with a stroke (simple enough) |
| 8 | Case 4 - Five days after a liver transplant (complex) |
After working through these problems it is important to test out your knowledge in real clinical settings. Examine fluid prescriptions and fluid balance charts for the patients you see and test whether they follow these principles. If not, attempt to find out why.
Important information This information is aimed at professionals and trainees in healthcare professions. Medical students and nursing staff should find it useful. It is unlikely to be helpful to those without such a background, and could prove misleading.
Copyright All the material linked to these pages is strictly the intellectual property of the University of Edinburgh, and the Department of Renal Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. If you would like to use it other than directly served from our website please contact us at renal@ed.ac.uk
Content originally conceived by Paddy Gibson. Electronic version with the help of Neil Turner, Isaac Turner (work experience student), and Rachel Ellaway and Claire de la Varre at the Learning Technology Section at the University of Edinburgh. This page created January 6th 2004. Modified