The chairman of the department of medicine at my residency program at the University of Colorado was a nephrologist (kidney specialist). He demanded we have a thorough knowledge of renal function, which includes fluids and electrolytes ( we also had to do our own urinalyses). I am grateful for this, despite the terror with which I often faced morning report (where I had to give a rundown of patients' complete acid-base,volume, and electrolyte status). Hindsight is a wonderful thing....Nothing is more important to human homeostasis than volume status. The simple concept of "dehydration" doesn't begin to cover it; if you don't have sufficient intravascular volume to perfuse your tissues with oxygen and glucose, all the rest is irrelevant.
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