Potassium
acts as an irritant at the neuromuscular junction. Too much and your cells get
irritated; not enough and your cells get sluggish. Your heart demands a normal
potassium level for its electrical conduction system to work. Too much and
you’ll see a peaked T wave; too little and you’ll see ventricular arrhythmias!
So, hyperkalemia is a bad thing for your patient’s heart and needs to be
treated immediately!
There
are so many different ways to treat hyperkalemia, but how do you know what
treatment is best and in which situation?
To
treat hyperkalemia effectively, you must understand why a patient gets
hyperkalemic in the first place and how each treatment option works.
