Page 235 - Saunders Comprehensive Review For NCLEX-RN

processes, or burns.
3. Generalized edema, also called anasarca, is an
excessive accumulation of fluid in the interstitial
space throughout the body and occurs as a result of
conditions such as cardiac, renal, or liver failure.
E. Body fluid
1. Description
a. Body fluids transport nutrients to the
cells and carry waste products from
the cells.
b. Total body fluid (intracellular and
extracellular) amounts to about 60% of
body weight in the adult, 55% in the
older adult, and 80% in the infant.

c. Thus infants and older adults

are at a higher risk for fluid-related
problems than younger adults;
children have a greater proportion of
body water than adults, and the older
adult has the least proportion of body
water.
2. Constituents of body fluids
a. Body fluids consist of water and
dissolved substances.
b. The largest single fluid constituent of
the body is water.
c. Some substances, such as glucose, urea,
and creatinine, do not dissociate in
solution; that is, they do not separate
from their complex forms into simpler
substances when they are in solution.
d. Other substances do dissociate; for
example, when sodium chloride is in a
solution, it dissociates, or separates,
into 2 parts or elements.

Infants and older adults need to be

monitored closely for fluid imbalances.
F. Body fluid transport
1. Diffusion
a. Diffusion is the process whereby a
solute (substance that is dissolved)
may spread through a solution or
solvent (solution in which the solute is
dissolved).

235