Hyperkalemia in Emergency Medicine
Practice Essentials
Hyperkalemia can be difficult to diagnose clinically because symptoms may be vague or absent. The fact, however, that hyperkalemia can lead to sudden death from cardiac arrhythmias requires that physicians be quick to consider hyperkalemia in patients who are at risk for it. See the electrocardiogram below.
Widened QRS complexes in hyperkalemia. See also Can't-Miss ECG Findings, Life-Threatening Conditions: Slideshow, a Critical Images slideshow, to help recognize the conditions shown in various tracings.
Signs and symptoms
Patients with hyperkalemia may be asymptomatic, or they may report the following symptoms (cardiac and neurologic symptoms predominate):
• Generalized fatigue
• Weakness
• Paresthesias
• Paralysis
• Palpitations