Terlipressin treatment for gastrointestinal bleeding reduces serum sodium
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 - 09:28
in Health & Medicine
A new study has found that patients with severe portal-hypertensive bleeding who are treated with terlipressin may experience an acute reduction of sodium in their blood. This reduction in serum sodium, known as hyponatremia, can cause adverse reactions such as neurological complications, and is rapidly reversible upon terlipressin withdrawal. Researchers suggest that serum sodium should be closely monitored in these patients and caution that use of solutions with high sodium content to treat this condition may cause a too rapid recovery of sodium leading to adverse events.
