Acid-Base Disorder in the Patients Visiting the Emergency Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: An acid-base disorder is a change in the normal value of extracellular pH that may result when renal or respiratory function is abnormal or when an acid or base load overwhelms their excretory capacity. Clinical acid-base disorders are conventionally defined from the vantage point of their impact on carbonic-acid-bicarbonate buffer system. The aim of the study is to find out the prevalence of acid-base disorder among patients visiting the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 370 patients who underwent arterial gas analysis at the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. The study was carried out from 15th July 2016 to 15th July 2017 after receiving ethical approval from Institutional Review Committee. Convenient sampling was done. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Data were entered in Microsoft-Excel. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17 was used for analysis. Results: Out of 370 patients analyzed, 329 (88.91%) (84.68-91.311 at 95% Confidence Interval) had acid-base disorder. The mixed disorder was the most common finding 80 (21.6%), followed by compensated Respiratory Acidosis 56 (17.8%). The mean age group of male patients studied was 50.72 +/- 20.586. and among females, it was 49.95 +/- 20.908. Among those most common symptoms were shortness of breath 151 (40.81%) followed by vomiting 91 (24.59%). Conclusions: Most common acid-base disorder was mixed disorder presenting with prominent symptoms of shortness of breathe in non-geriatric patients wherein the geriatric patient, the most common disorder was compensated respiratory acidosis with the prominent symptom of shortness of breath.