New manuscript on cerebral salt wasting

Congratulations to Jan Leonard and team for publishing a new study on cerebral salt wasting (CSW), published in Scandanivan Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation, and Emergency Medicine last week.

Characterized by hyponatremia and hypovolemia, CSW is an electrolyte imbalance with nebulous symptoms and diagnostic criteria. This systematic review study aimed to review the literature on CSW within the TBI population to report the incidence and timing of CSW after TBI, examine outcomes, and summarize the biochemical changes in patients who developed CSW.

The study found incidence of CSW varied between 0.8 – 34.6 %. The populations studied were heterogeneous and the criteria used to define hyponatremia and CSW varied. Though believed to play a role in the development of CSW, increased levels of natriuretic peptides in patients diagnosed with CSW were not consistently reported.The study findings findings reinforce the elusiveness of the CSW diagnosis and the need for strict and consistent diagnostic criteria.