Hyponatremia and Central Pontine Myelinolysis

Hyponatremia Recent Stats:

I have meant to do this for awhile, and I apologize for it taking so long. I guess, better late than never.

The HCUP website reformulated the way that they record statistics. Now, I did not read why or how, but it did show that the previous stats that they recorded before July of 2014 were across the board higher, than what they are listing now. For 2011, I will include all the data points that I found, ie old and newer stats.

Hyponatremia diagnosis codes: ICD-9: 276.1

ICD-10: E87.1

To obtain the date, I used the ICD-9 code: 276.1

For 2011, hyponatremia was recorded as this:

2011 National statistics – principal diagnosis only (hyponatremia only -from all hospitals in US)

Therefore, there were a total number of patients that had hyponatremia specifically, 101,300 +/- 2406

If you look at all possible combination of hospitalized patients that had hyponatremia AND an additional condition (ie severe burns, cancer, liver transplant, etc):

Now, these are the NEW reference points, the older version listed for 2011 hyponatremia only diagnosis: 104,744 (discharged), 1,124 people died.

If you include all possible diagnoses with hyponatremia, it is 2, 019, 550 +/- 53,454.

Yeah, that’s a lot of people who are at risk for CPM/EPM if hyponatremia is not diagnosed and managed correctly.

For 2012:

2012 National statistics – principal diagnosis only

There is no older version of documenting with this system.

However, if you look at all hospitalizations that included hyposmolality:

I love numbers because they don’t lie. What I don’t like with this 2nd break down (all hospitalization that listed 276.1 with another condition), it is impossible to tell if hyponatremia actually killed the person or the other illness.

Regardless, there an extremely HIGH number of people who are diagnosed with hyponatremia each year, even if it is or isn’t with a secondary diagnosis. More people should be aware of the condition, and how it should be treated! Hopefully, you will spread the word on how common it is to get it, and how it should be treated.

Blessings!

(Use the link below to find the statistics above: http://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.jsp)