Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Hyponatremia is a relatively frequent and serious complication developed in patients with different neurosurgical pathology. The aim of the study was to identify the frequency of occurrence of hyponatremia in neurosurgical patients.

Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis included 39479 patients operated in the Institute of Neurosurgery from January 2008 to December 2014.

Results: 785 patients (2% of all operated patients): 554 adults and 231 children had hyponatremia with Na level less than 130 mmol/l. In 63% of cases (497 patients) we observed a moderate decrease of Na (125 to 130 mmol/l), in 11% of cases (88 patients) the level of Na was less than 120 mmol/l. The mortality rate in patients with hyponatremia was 14.3%, what is 10 times faster than that of the rest of patients without hyponatremia operated during these years. In adults most often hyponatremia developed either after surgical removal of craniopharyngiomas (11%) or as a result of an acute stroke (22%). In children - after surgery of craniopharyngiomas (10%), astrocytomas (7%), ependymomas (24%) and germ cell tumors (10.5%).