[Clinical observation and study of blood phosphate concentration changes in postoperative patients]

Blood phosphate concentration of 257 postoperative patients in the ICU was determined through the molybdenum-blue developing method. The results showed that 136 cases had hypophosphatemia (blood phosphate concentration < 0.8mmol/L), bearing an incidence of 52.9%, which indicated that the occurrence of hypophosphatemia was associated with patients' age, primary disease and postoperative intravenous hypertonic glucose solution transfusion. Meanwhile, the existance of hypophosphatemia was often complicated by hypocalcemia (83.1%), hyponatremia (76.4%), and hypokelemia (37.5%), and furthermore, was in connection with organ dysfunction or failure. Of the 40 death cases among all 257, 31 endured hypophosphatemia (77.5%). Hence, prompt diagnosis and active prevention and treatment of hypophosphatemia are essential to raise the cure rate of surgical critical patients.