Citation

Joyce SM, Potter R. Ann. Emerg. Med. 1986; 15(6): 745-747.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, American College of Emergency Physicians, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3706870

Abstract

A 43-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with acute agitation, confusion, and tonic seizures. She had a history of drug abuse, most notably beer, which constituted her major dietary intake. The patient's seizures were at first thought to be factitious in association with an acute psychosis; however, her serum sodium concentration was 110 mEq/L and urine sodium was 14 mEq/L. The patient responded to IV hypertonic saline and subsequently recovered completely. Beer potomania, the most likely etiology for this patient's hyponatremia, is a rare disorder in which dietary sodium and protein insufficiency lead to dilutional hyponatremia.

Language: en