• Michele J Fagan, Jeffrey Avner, and Hnin Khine.
• Pediatric Emergency Department, Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA. mfagan@montefiore.org
• Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2008 Nov 1;47(9):851-5.

AbstractA prospective consecutive case series of patients aged 5 to 20 years who presented to a pediatric emergency department with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) was studied to determine the actual percent loss of body weight during an episode of DKA to determine the degree of dehydration and thereby provide a guide for hydration therapy during such an episode. Patients' weights at the time of presentation, inpatient discharge, and at the first follow-up clinic visit were used to calculate the percent loss of body weight. Data from 33 episodes of DKA showed that the majority of patients with DKA had moderate (4% to 8%) dehydration. Clinical assessment was a poor predictor of severity of dehydration and overestimated the percent dehydration in 67% of patients. Based on these data it is recommend that initial fluid therapy for DKA should assume moderate dehydration with adjustment made according to clinical response.

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