Liters of Fluid the body can hold

Nurses General Nursing

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I have a question that I am just curious about ...

My grandmothers is in the hospital experiencing kidney failure & over one week they have removed 7 liters of fluid from her body ... this got me thinking how many liters of fluid can the body hold?

I've looked everywhere but can not find an answer to this question.

Does anyone know how many liters of fluid the body can hold?

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Specializes in ICU, PACU, Cath Lab.

I am not sure that there is a specific answer to this...maybe...but when I worked in Dialysis, I had a patient come in 21 kg over his "dry weight" which is the weight that they would "normally" be at...so this guy had like 46 lbs of extra fluid...now how he managed to do that with out killing himself, or going into CHF...I have no idea...he had to have extra tx...obviously!!

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Specializes in ER.

Eventually it starts seeping out through the skin, and everyone has a different saturation point.

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Specializes in ICU.

Ive seen pts be 20-30 L positive, possibly more. But this is in ICU where they are usually quite septic and need fluid resusitation. The get quite puffed up, tonnes of pitting edema, and often eventually start seeping out of the skin, and especially out of where the central lines and stuff like that are inserted, or if there is any skin tears, incisions, ect. Usally they become this positive over the course of their stay, not all all at once.

Cher

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