(Solved) Dehydrating, sodium's effect on water loss, and electrolytes

RiniWini

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8 years ago

Dehydrating, sodium's effect on water loss, and electrolytes

I'm doing a case study and the patient has excessive vomiting, sodium loss, fluid loss. The question I'm having trouble with is:
"Explain how a loss of sodium ions contributes to dehydration."

My textbook is a little bit foggy on this, or maybe I'm just having a tough time grasping the concept based on how its worded.

This is what I understand so far: Sodium is a key player in osmotic pressure as it's the main solute component of extracellular fluid... so I'm thinking of sodium goes, water goes along with it as it's attracted to the sodium that left the body? Is that roughly correct?

Secondly it's asking "Describe the compensations for the losses of fluid and electrolytes that should be occuring in the patient"

I'm completely stumped on that one.. I was thinking that fluid would be drawn from both the extracellular and intracellular compartments to compensate for fluid loss within the body but I'm not sure if that's right.. also I don't fully understand what would be happening with the electrolytes?

Thank you all in advance for any help you can offer me to clarify this issue!

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bio_man

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RiniWini Author

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8 years ago

So because we no longer have that "wall" to draw in the water from the small intestine, it's not being properly absorbed and that's why we lose that water?

Also how would the body try and compensate for the loss of fluids and electrolytes? For fluids I can imagine that it would just decrease urine output and release aldosterone but what about for compensating electrolytes? I would assume it would just be trying to compensate for loss of sodium from vomiting, it specifically mentions that the patient "lost water, sodium in mucus content, and the gastric secretions" and the only electrolyte I see there is sodium but I'm not sure if there were any others that I was just overlooking?

How would the body compensate for loss of sodium? I know for fluid we can always reabsorb it or it can be transferred to different areas depending on its needs but I can't imagine how a patient's body would compensate for sodium loss other than just ingest more sodium.

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bio_man

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8 years ago

Yes, to compensate, you'd have less urine output, lower blood pressure, slower heartbeat.

I'd assume that water would be drawn out of your intestines given the imbalance of electrolytes.

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