Renal Losses: Magnesium Deficit – Hypokalemia

00:01 Now finally, we come to magnesium which gets its own little category.

00:05 So magnesium can cause hypokalemia and about 40 to 60 percent of cases.

00:09 And it's often due to underlying disorders that waste both magnesium and potassium.

00:13 These are things like diarrhea or using diuretics.

00:17 The renal potassium wasting however does occur independently because of an increase in secretion into the loop of henle and collecting duct.

00:24 Now, the mechanism has to why this happen isn't completely understood but probably has to do with ATP depletion.

00:30 And and the removal of the inhibitory action on that reno outer medullary potassium channel.

00:35 One thing that I do want you to keep in mind is that you absolutely have to correct magnesium deficits in order to restore potassium.

00:44 So you could never get somebody's potassium repeated if you remain hypomagnesemic, so do keep that in mind as you are taking care of these patients.