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Introduction
The 3rd International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia (EAH) Consensus Development Conference convened in Carlsbad, California, in February 2015, with a panel of 17 international experts. The delegates represented four countries and nine medical and scientific subspecialties pertaining to athletic training, exercise physiology, sports medicine, water/sodium metabolism and body fluid homoeostasis. The primary goal of the panel was to review the existing data on EAH and update the 2008 Consensus Statement.1 This document serves to replace the 2nd International EAH Consensus Development Conference Statement and launch an educational campaign designed to address the morbidity and mortality associated with a preventable and treatable fluid imbalance.
The following statement is a summary of the data synthesised by the 2015 EAH Consensus Panel and represents an evolution of the most current knowledge on EAH. This document will summarise the most current information on the prevalence, aetiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of EAH for medical personnel, athletes, athletic trainers and the greater public. The EAH Consensus Panel strove to clearly articulate what we agreed on, did not agree on and did not know, including minority viewpoints that were supported by clinical experience and experimental data. Further updates will be necessary to: (1) remain current with our understanding and (2) critically assess the effectiveness of our present recommendations. Suggestions for future research and educational strategies to reduce the incidence and prevalence of EAH are provided at the end of the document; areas of controversy that remain in this topic have also been outlined.
Consensus methodology
The 3rd International EAH Consensus Development Conference utilised National Institutes of Health guidelines, amended for a more holistic approach to fit the needs of both the group and the topic. Twenty-two individuals (17 accepted) were invited to participate in the consensus conference who: (1) have made scientific and/or clinical contributions to the topic …