Abstract
Oral urea has been used in the past to treat various diseases like gastric ulcers, liver metastases, sickle cell disease, heart failure, brain oedema, glaucoma, Meniere disease, etc. We have demonstrated for years, the efficacy of urea to treat euvolemic (SIADH) or hypervolemic hyponatremia. We briefly describe the indications of urea use in symptomatic and paucisymptomatic hyponatremic patients. Urea is a non-toxic, cheap product, and protects against osmotic demyelinating syndrome (ODS) in experimental studies. Prospective studies showing the benefit to treat mild chronic hyponatremia due to SIADH and comparing water restriction, urea, high ceiling diuretics, and antivasopressin antagonist antagonist should be done.
Highlights
Urea is the main nitrogen-containing substance in the urine of man
Oral urea has been used to treat gastritis and gastric ulcers in the past, and, for years [2,3], liver metastases [4], prophylactic treatment of sickle cell disease [5], hematuria related to drepanocytosis [6], and heart failure [7,8]
We will briefly discuss the use of urea in the acute or chronic treatment of euvolemic hyponatremia, mainly orally
Summary
Urea is the main nitrogen-containing substance in the urine of man It is highly soluble in water and practically non-toxic (LD50 is 15 g/kg for rat). It represents about half of our daily osmotic load eliminated in the urine. Urea has been proposed to treat euvolemic [13,14,15] or hypervolemic hyponatremia [16,17,18] It can be used orally [13] or intravenously [19]. We will briefly discuss the use of urea in the acute or chronic treatment of euvolemic hyponatremia, mainly orally
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