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Intensive dialysis not any better than routine dialysis, says research
Seriously ill-patients receive intensive dialysis, but that is not any better in saving lives and in accelerating recovery as compared to routine dialysis, according to recent research.
The patients under observation were the most sick among them all and were in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital.
Those admitted were suffering from overwhelming infections, resulting in multiple failures of the organs. Others had experienced complications from having major surgery, mostly heart surgery. Some were admitted to the ICU following injury or severe trauma says Dr.Alan Cass, who is the co-author of the study which has been published in October issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
According to Dr. Cass previous studies showed that intensive dialysis for those suffering from acute kidney problems saved lives. Incidentally, Dr. Cass is the Director of the renal and metabolic division, George Institute for International Health in Sydney, Australia. He says, “This study, consistent with the findings of another large trial, found no benefit with intensive dialysis over standard dialysis treatment. No benefit was seen in terms of reduction in deaths or length of time in hospital, nor was there any difference in the need for ongoing and costly dialysis support.”
Says Dr. Kevin Martin, chief nephrology at Louise University School of Medicine, “the two doses they chose – so- called standard dose or a higher dose-really did not make any difference in outcome and that clarifies previous papers, some of which said the more you gave the better.”
Based on background information in the paper, about 5% of the patients in ICU in the hospital suffer from kidney injury that requires dialysis. Of these about 60% would die.
But it was not clear which dialysis approach is better.
The study involved 1, 508 patients who had been randomized to either receive a “high-intensity or low intensity version of continuous renal replacement therapy.”
Cass further adds, “About three-quarters (of patients) were on ventilators, and most also needed continuous medication to support their heart and blood pressure, in addition to needing dialysis to simply stay alive,” says Cass.
Dialysis that is continues filters more slowly as compared to intermittently done dialysis, which happens to be carried out once in every other day or perhaps after every three days.
It was observed that after 90 days, the mortality rate in both the groups was the same about 44.7 percent.
Source: healthfinder.gov
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