Fluid Balance in An Acute Hospital Setting
In an acute hospital setting, fluid balance is monitored carefully. This provides information on the patient's state of hydration, renal function and cardiovascular function.
- If fluid loss is greater than fluid gain (for example if the patient vomits and has diarrhoea), the patient is said to be in negative fluid balance. In this case, fluid is often given intravenously to compensate for the loss.
- On the other hand, a positive fluid balance (where fluid gain is greater than fluid loss) might suggest a problem with either the renal or cardiovascular system.
If blood pressure is low (hypotension), the filtration rate in the kidneys will lessen, causing less fluid reabsorption and thus less urine output.
An accurate measure of fluid balance is therefore an important diagnostic tool, and allows for prompt intervention to correct the imbalance.
Read more about this topic: Fluid Balance
Famous quotes containing the words fluid, balance, acute, hospital and/or setting:
“It is more than likely that the brain itself is, in origin and development, only a sort of great clot of genital fluid held in suspense or reserved.... This hypothesis ... would explain the enormous content of the brain as a maker or presenter of images.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Genius has infused itself into nature. It indicates itself by a small excess of good, a small balance in brute facts always favorable to the side of reason.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Strictly speaking, there is but one real evil: I mean acute pain. All other complaints are so considerably diminished by time that it is plain the grief is owing to our passion, since the sensation of it vanishes when that is over.”
—Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)
“Radio put technology into storytelling and made it sick. TV killed it. Then you were locked into somebody else’s sighting of that story. You no longer had the benefit of making that picture for yourself, using your imagination. Storytelling brings back that humanness that we have lost with TV. You talk to children and they don’t hear you. They are television addicts. Mamas bring them home from the hospital and drag them up in front of the set and the great stare-out begins.”
—Jackie Torrence (b. 1944)
““Oh, let’s go up the hill and scare ourselves,
As reckless as the best of them tonight,
By setting fire to all the brush we piled
With pitchy hands to wait for rain or snow....””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)