Causes of hyponatremia in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Neurosurgery.

BACKGROUND: Hyponatremia is a common electrolyte disorder in hospitalised patients. The distribution of the various causes of hyponatremia has been studied in hospitalised patients in general, but little is known about the distribution in specific departments. We performed a prevalence study on the aetiology of hyponatremia in two departments in our hospital, namely, the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Neurosurgery. METHODS: Consecutive adult patients with hyponatremia (serum sodium concentration