Evaluation of the prescribing practice of postoperative fluid therapy in comparison with the guideline recommendations

Abstract EN

Background: The post-operative fluid therapies are considered a key part of surgical care and have attracted more attention and importance over the last period because of their remarkable impact on post-surgical outcomes.

Several studies showed inappropriate and suboptimal therapy of intravenous fluid and associated with many compactions such as Weight gain due to fluid overload and electrolyte abnormalities.

Therefore in 2013, a new guideline had been initiated by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence dealing with fluid therapy in adults.

This study aims to assess the current practice of fluid therapy versus the guideline.

Methods: The study was a prospective observational with 105 patients match the eligibility criteria and only 84 are included.

The patient’s body weight, amount of fluid given to patients were calculated and compared to guideline also, serum sodium and serum potassium measured before and after fluid therapy.

Results: The main results of this observational study demonstrated that the amount of fluid is significantly higher than the recommended amount by a guideline and lack of correlation with the body weight.

Also, the body weight increased and serum potassium decreased significantly after two days of fluid therapy.

Increased incidence of electrolytes abnormalities and trend of use of more saline containing fluids with less ringer was also observed.

Conclusions: The data of current practice collectively indicated that extra amounts of fluid were prescribed resulted in increasing body weight of patients and appearance of electrolytes disturbances.