Three Cases Of Symptomatic Hyponatremia After Mild Head Trauma

Pyo,  Chang Hae; Lee,  Keun; Park,  Cheol Wan; Ahn,  Seok Keun; Lim,  Yong Su; Min,  Sun Sik

J Korean Soc Emerg Med > Volume 9(1); 1998 > Article

Case Report

Journal of The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine 1998;9(1): 177-183.

Three Cases Of Symptomatic Hyponatremia After Mild Head Trauma

Chang Hae Pyo, Keun Lee, Cheol Wan Park, Seok Keun Ahn, Yong Su Lim, Sun Sik Min

ABSTRACT

Many patients whose chief complaint is headache caused by accident such as traffic accident, falling, or assaults visit to emergency center. Majority of these patients has mild or moderate symptoms, and there is no need to treat surgically. However, the fact that head injury can cause SIADH(syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone) is likely to be overseen. Acute hyponatremia might have been associated with death or permanent brain damage. Hyponatremia is best handled by early recognition and correction of a downward trend in the serum sodium. Unfortunately, this is often difficult in the head-injured patient, where hyponatremia may occur fairly rapidly and is confused by symptoms of head injury. when moderate to severe hyponatremia occurs, it is important to determine its etiology and expeditiously initiate corrective action. There has not been any reported case of the occurrence of symptomatic SIADH after mild head injury in Korea yet. The authors report the experience of three cases of symptomatic SIADH after mild head injury with review of the literatures.