ABSENCE OF POSTOPERATIVE HYPONATREMIA SYNDROME IN YOUNG, HEALTHY FEMALES

Young and previously healthy females have been reported to develop sev ere postoperative hyponatremia with a fatal outcome. The clinical pres entation is dramatic, with seizures, respiratory arrest, and permanent , often catastrophic, brain damage. The true incidence is unknown. We report a survey of 290,815 surgical procedures on females at the Mayo Clinic from 1976 to 1992. Postoperatively 1,498 females had cardiopulm onary arrest, 255 had a metabolic encephalopathy, 32 had new-onset sei zures, and 6 had central pontine myelinolysis. We failed to identify a ny association of respiratory arrest with postoperative hyponatremia. Our findings indicate that the postoperative hyponatremia syndrome in young, healthy females with respiratory arrest is extremely uncommon.