Water Intoxication

Recently attention has been called to the dangers incident to the forcing of fluids, particularly in postoperative cases. De Takáts¹mentions overloading of the circulation in cardiac weakness, production of general anasarca in Bright's disease, and accentuation of cerebral edema in concussion of the brain. However, one of the most interesting complications, which has not been mentioned, is the possibility of so-called water intoxication. Rowntree²in 1923 called attention to this phenomenon in man and reported a number of experiments in which he produced this condition in animals. He first noted what he interpreted to be a condition of water intoxication in a number of patients suffering with diabetes insipidus to whom he and his associates had given repeated doses of solution of pituitary. These patients had been in the habit of consuming from 8 to 10 liters of water by mouth daily without any untoward effects. When,