A nurse is preparing to administer IV fluids that lower serum osmolarity and pull fluid into the intracellular space. Which fluid should the nurse administer?
Explanation
•The correct answer is
•Hypotonic solution contains fewer solutes than the serum, making its osmolarity lower. This will lower the serum osmolarity of the blood and the excess fluid in the blood will move out of the vascular space into the intracellular compartment by diffusion (due to the concentration gradient).
•The fluid moves to where the solutes are more concentrated to try to balance it out.
•Hypertonic solution contains more solutes than the serum, making its osmolarity higher. This will raise the serum osmolarity of the blood and pull fluid from the intracellular compartment into the vascular space by diffusion (due to the concentration gradient), raising the blood volume.
•Isotonic solution has equal osmolarity compared to normal serum. This does not create a concentration gradient and does not pull fluids into or out of the vascular space, so it allows rehydration that expands blood volume but also allows fluid to move into the intracellular compartment as needed.
•Supratonic solution does not exist.