Research state and prospect of hyponatremia in cirrhosis

Dilutional hyponatremia (DH) is a common complication of patients diagnosed with cirrhosis and is closely related with refractory ascites, hepatic encephalopathy (HE) , spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) and hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) .The common symptoms of hepatocirrhotic patients with mild dilutional hyponatremia are fatigue and muscle weakness.The clinical manifestations of severe cases can be encephalopathy characterized by cognitive and motor disturbances, even convulsion or coma.If the patients preparing for liver transplantation have dilutional hyponatremia, the complications and death occur more often after the transplantation.The treatments for dilutional hyponatremia include water restriction and albumin transfusion.Injection of hypertonic saline is necessary for treating severe hyponatremia.Several non-peptide V2 receptor antagonists are likely to play a role in the treatment of dilutional hyponatremia.