TUESDAY, Feb. 3, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For patients hospitalized with severe hyponatremia, faster sodium correction is associated with a lower risk for 90-day death or delayed neurologic events, according to a study published online Jan. 27 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Dustin G. Mark, M.D., from Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 13,988 adults hospitalized with a serum sodium level of 120 mEq/L or lower between 2008 and 2023 at 21 community hospitals to examine the association between sodium correction rates and death or delayed neurologic events. The maximum 24-hour rate of serum sodium correction was characterized as slow (<8 mEq/L), medium (8 to 12 mEg/L), or fast (>12 mEq/L [reference]).
Congestive heart failure, liver disease, alcohol dependence, and metastatic cancer were reported as comorbidities (24, 18, 14, and 10 percent, respectively). The researchers found that the primary outcome (composite of 90-day death or delayed neurologic events) occurred in 3,000 patients (21 percent); 90-day death and 90-day delayed neurologic events occurred in 2,554 and 587 patients, respectively (18 and 4 percent). A lower adjusted risk for the primary outcome was seen in association with medium and fast versus slow 24-hour sodium correction rates (risk difference, −5.6 and −9.0 percentage points, respectively).
"Given that multiple studies with varying designs have reached similar conclusions, treatment guidelines for severe hyponatremia should be reexamined to allow for faster sodium correction (for example, 8 to 12 mEq/L per 24 hours), regardless of presumed risk factors," the authors write.