Help with fluids/electrolytes.

Here is a link to another thread. Esme has several links that might help you.

https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/fluid-electrolytes-helpful-904973.html

Thank you :)

Normal saline with any dextrose is most definitely not contraindicated for patients who are NPO. The most common IV fluids you'll probably see in the hospital are D5 NS and D5 1/2 NS and you will administer these to NPO patients all the time.

They're NPO meaning nothing by mouth. It doesn't what goes through their IV. I give D5 1/2 NS + 20K every single day to NPO patients.

Like I said, I needed some clarification on the fluids.

Thank you for that.

I looked at those and they really helped. I took my test on Monday and I got an 81% so I passed! All of the fluid/electrolyte and ABG questions I got right except for one. I forgot that TPN is hypertonic. Now I will never forget that :)

Thank you Esme!

They're NPO meaning nothing by mouth. It doesn't what goes through their IV. I give D5 1/2 NS + 20K every single day to NPO patients.

From what our professor said, this is okay for short term for NPO patients, especially in post op patients.

If given long term, it could actually cause fluid volume deficit.

From what our professor said, this is okay for short term for NPO patients, especially in post op patients.

If given long term, it could actually cause fluid volume deficit.

If you have a patient who's NPO long enough for that to happen, they need a lot more than maintenance IVF and would probably be on TPN.

dextrose is metabolized so technically NS with anything added is hypertonic, the fact that dextrose gets metabolized really makes it an isotonic solution in the body.

From what our professor said, this is okay for short term for NPO patients, especially in post op patients.

If given long term, it could actually cause fluid volume deficit.

As stated before, a patient being NPO for this long would be started on TPN. In my specialty, most of my post op patients that experience this have abdominal distention, no bm, and possible vomiting. We'll usually drop an NGT on these folks, if it doesn't progress by POD 2 then they'll be started on TPN. Some people's bowels I suppose take longer to wake up. They also have to r/o any obstructions or leaks.

dextrose is metabolized so technically NS with anything added is hypertonic, the fact that dextrose gets metabolized really makes it an isotonic solution in the body.

NS with anything added isn't alway hypertonic.

If you have 0.9 NaCl (aka NS) with D5W then you have an isotonic fluid because as you said the dextrose is metabolized and the 0.9% NaCl is isotonic to blood/plasma.

D5 1/2 NS is HYPOtonic.

Whyyy? Because dextrose is metabolized and what's left is 1/2 NS which is hypotonic.

This is great for NPO pts as it pushes fluids into the cells and gives the cells energy (dextrose).