Initial management of acute hyperammonemia in pediatrics.

Abstract

Hyperammonemia is a medical emergency. There are no publications regarding the availability of resources, supplies, and knowledge necessary for the initial management of hyperammonemia by pediatricians in Argentina; however, according to the authors' experience, the necessary resources are not available all year round in a large portion of our territory. Based on such state of affairs, an international bibliographic review on this topic and the authors' experience, we developed a series of ecommendations for the initial pediatric management of this emergency, with the objective of reducing deficiencies, allowing adequate clinical suspicion leading to a timely diagnosis and emergency management and a rational use of pharmacological resources (some of which are costly) to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with hyperammonemia.