The Effects of Fluid Balance Disorders on Mortality in Patients Hospitalized for Acute Disease in the Internal Medicine Clinic.

Backgorund: Previous studies conducted on critical patients in intensive care units have shown that fluid balance disorder (FBD) increases mortality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of FBD on mortality of patients hospitalized in internal medicine ward.

Methods: The present study was designed as an observational study and follow-up period of the patients began in the first 8 hours of admission to the emergency room who had hypervolemia findings in physical examination were included in the fluid balance FB (+) group; those who had any of the dehydration findings were included in FB (-) group, those who had both hypervolemia and dehydration findings were included in FB (mix) group, and those with normal examination findings were included in FB (N) group.

Results: A total of 303 patients, mean age of 66.4 ± 15.9 years, 54.5% male, were included in the study, which covered the period between May 1, 2019 and September 30, 2019. In-hospital, monthly and quarterly cumulative survival rates of the patients were respectively; 91.7 ± 2.7%, 89.2 ± 2.8%, 81.7 ± 3.5% in FB (N) group; 86.3 ± 5.2%, 82.2 ± 5.7%, and 57.8 ± 7.4% in FB (-) group; 70.9 ± 4.4%, 68.1 ±4.4%, and 54.9 ± 4.7% in FB (+) group; 57.6 ± 10.2%, 56.0 ± 9.9%, 44.0 ± 9.9% in FB (mix) group. It was determined that there was an approximately 3-fold increase in both monthly and quarterly mortality risks in those who had FBD compared to those who were not (HR: 3.077 and 3.031, respectively). It was shown with the multivariate Cox regression analyses that this risk increases independently from both preliminary diagnosis, concomitant diseases, vital disorders (30-day and 90-day AHR 2.541 and 2.517, respectively), and from the biochemical disorders (30-day and 90-day AHR 2.132 and 2.124, respectively).

Conclusions: Our study is important in terms of emphasizing the value of physical examination which lost its popularity with the development of technology and many medical instruments, but still simple and cheap.