Dyskalemia following head trauma: case report and review of the literature.

Traumatic head injuries are recognized causes of alteration in body-free potassium metabolism. Several causative factors have been identified, among them pharmacological agents, such as barbiturates, succinylcholine, and mannitol, as well as hypothermia and head trauma. We present a unique case of dyskalemia in a 36-year-old man who had suffered a severe head injury. Dyskalemia presented first as a resistant hypokalemia and then as hyperkalemia, leading to sudden cardiac arrest. Successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was executed, and normalization of the potassium levels was achieved with the institution of emergent hemofiltration therapy. On the basis of our experience and a review of the current literature, we wish to alert physicians treating severe head injuries to this phenomenon and to carefully monitor the patient’s potassium levels.

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