Prevalence of dyselectrolytaemia in children with pneumonia admitted to a tertiary care centre in Eastern India

Introduction: Globally, pneumonia accounts for 15% of deaths in children less than 5 years of age Electrolyte imbalance, especially hyponatraemia (serum sodium<135meq/L), has been described in a wide variety of acute infections such as pneumonia and is associated with worse outcomes leading to a poor prognosis. Hypokalaemia is the next common electrolyte imbalance associated with pneumonia.

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of dyselectrolytaemia in children aged 2 months to 5 years with severe pneumonia and to find the association between it and morbidity, mortality and hospital stay in severe pneumonia.

Method: In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 107 admitted children aged 2 months to 5 years were included after clinical or radiological diagnosis from January 2019 to June 2020. Frequency of dyselectrolytaemia and associated outcome were analysed using Chi-square test.  

Results: A total of 107 hospitalised children was studied comprising 62 (57.9%) boys and 45 (42.1%) girls. Out of the children 55 had initial low serum sodium levels, 34.6% having mild hyponatraemia. Those children who presented with severe and very severe pneumonia with initial hyponatraemia were found to be significantly associated with mechanical ventilation, growth in blood culture, C-reactive protein, increased length of hospital stay and mortality.

Conclusions: Most common dyselectrolytaemia associated with pneumonia was hyponatraemia. Hyponatraemia was associated with prolonged hospital stay and with poor outcome

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2022; 51(2): 222-226