Successful treatment in the patient with serum sodium level greater than 200 mEq/L

Hypernatremia developing in nonhospitalized adults is predominantly a disea se of the elderly and mentally handicapped patients, possibly revealing ina dequate nursing care of these patients. It has long been claimed that the d uration of hypernatremia and its rate of correction are correlated with imp rovement in patients' neurologic status. Since there are only a handful of cases with serum sodium levels greater than 200 mEq/L until recently, it is not clear at what rate plasma sodium concentration can be safely normalize d in severe hypernatremic patients. We report a case of severe hypernatremi a with survival. This patient underwent rapid correction of serum sodium co ncentration during the management of this metabolic derangement using isoto nic solution.