Annals of emergency medicine
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Diabetic ketoacidosis is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in children with type I diabetes mellitus, and cerebral edema is the leading cause of pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis death. Excessive intravenous fluid administration has been implicated as a cause of cerebral edema. We perform an evidence-based emergency medicine review assessing the association of intravenous fluid hydration and cerebral edema. ⋯ Accepting the inherent limitations of observational studies, we found a lack of strong or consistent results implicating rate or volume of fluid administration as a precipitant cause of cerebral edema in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis.