AN ASSESSMENT OF DETERMINING THE VARIATION IN THE LEVEL OF SODIUM IN CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AWD (ACUTE WATERY DIARRHEA) BEFORE AND AFTER ORS (ORAL REHYDRATION SALE) SOLUTION MANAGEMENT

Background: The risk of death in a young age due to diarrhoea is minimized by oral rehydration salt (ORS) solution. This solution with decreased osmolarity may be very productive according to the suggestion of current studies. Therefore, hyponatremia with decreased osmolarity ORS is now considered. Objective: The objective of this research was to find out the difference in the serum sodium level in children with acute watery diarrhoea (AWD before and after the use of decreased osmolarity ORS solution). Patients and Methods: This research was conducted at Mayo Hospital, Lahore from September 2017 to October 2018. Total children selected for this study were one hundred. The age of the children was between two to sixty months. A written agreement was signed by patients which were consistent with the clinical case definition of AWD (passage of 3 or more loose stools per day) with a period of fewer than 14 days. Non-probability purposive sampling was used for gathering a sample. Decreased osmolarity ORS solution was given to each child. Before and after the use of ORS, paired sample t-test was used. Those children were excluded who were with serious dehydration or having clinical affirmation of systemic infection. SPSS was used for data entry and assessment. Results: Variation in serum sodium level after use of decreased osmolarity ORS solution was not valuable statistically P-value = 0.173. The serum sodium level before use was (133 ± 3.4) meq/L and after use was (133 ± 2.9) meq/L. For subgroups of age and gender, identical outcomes were observed. Conclusion: In children with AWD, the incidence of hyponatremia was not significantly associated with decreased osmolarity ORS solution. Keywords: Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS), Osmolarity, Sodium, Diarrhea and Solution