Severe symptomatic hyponatraemia secondary to bowel preparation

Abstract

A 62-year-old woman presented to a rural Australian hospital for a planned admission to receive bowel preparation 1 day prior to an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy. This admission was complicated by seizures and reduced levels of consciousness in the setting of hyponatraemia secondary to bowel preparation. Given the limited resources in a remote/rural Australian hospital, transfer to a tertiary level hospital was required for review and management of this rare complication of bowel preparation.