A Case of Acute Hyponatremia in the Emergency Department

The patient had a colonoscopy just three hours ago and arrived home before going to sleep. She was feeling completely well until the night before when she began her pico-salax bowel prep prior to today's procedure. Physiologic stress from doing the prep likely triggers non-osmodic ADH release, signaling water retention. GI volume losses probably plays a part as well if there's associated nausea and vomiting,. which are likely triggered by the following serum sodium levels.