Hypernatremia as a prognostic factor of mortality in patients with severe traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Background: A severe traumatic brain injury is a frequent pathology, it implies a non-negligible morbidity and mortality. Hypernatremia could be considered a factor associated with poor prognosis in order to optimize treatment in the group of high-risk patients. We aim to determine if hypernatremia is a prognostic factor of mortality in patients with severe traumatic brain injury in a public hospital which is a local reference center in trauma. Material and Methods: We performed a non-probabilistic sampling of adult patients of both sexes with severe traumatic brain injury from the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital Regional Docente de Trujillo, Perú during the 2015–2018 period. Results: Mortality in the group with and without hypernatremia was 38% and 6% respectively (p=0.001). The difference in natremia mean values between the group with and without mortality was 21,86 (95% CI 18.2-25.5) (p=0.000). In the multivariate analysis, we found hy- pernatremia with adjusted OR of 16.73 (95% CI 1.96-142.82) (p=0.01). The ROC curve showed adequate performance to predict mortality, with an AUC 0.878 (95% CI 0.77-0.97) (p=0.00). Conclusion: Hypernatremia is a prognostic factor of mortality in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.