Skip to content

Electrolyte abnormalities in the alcoholic patient

The acute effect of ethyl alcohol ingestion is to induce diuresis with excretion of free water and preservation of electrolytes. This occurs as the blood alcohol concentration increases and is due to the suppression of endogenous release of ADH by alcohol. During a steady state blood alcohol concentration, alcohol acts as an antidiuretic and induces water and electrolyte retention.

In steady state, additional doses of alcohol result in progressively lower and eventually absent diuretic responses. The chronic effect of alcohol is to promote isosmotic storage of water and electrolytes due to increased ADH levels. Excess water and electrolytes are acutely excreted in response to additional alcohol ingestion. With cessation of alcohol consumption, this excess is excreted over several days.

Routine parenteral fluid administration in chronic and withdrawing alcoholics should be avoided. The role of potassium and magnesium in the development of specific manifestations of the alcohol withdrawal syndrome is unclear. Alcoholics may have electrolyte abnormalities due to alcohol-induced illness, poor nutrition, or vomiting and diarrhea. Each case must be assessed individually.


Emerg Med Clin North Am.: Electrolyte abnormalities in the alcoholic patient

Found at Alkohol adé (german)

Powered by BetterDocs

Close Popup

Bye bye booze needs a few cookies, too.

However, we try only to activate as few as possible technically necessary cookies so that your visit to this site cannot be tracked as far as possible by third parties. We do not share any information about your visit with anyone.

But even we we do need a few - e.g. to display this legal notice or to care for that you do not have to log in again for each page or see this popup again for each page.

As soon as you click on an external link or video, cookies may be set by the operators of these sites, which we cannot influence. Learn more on our privacy page.


Close Popup