Keep Up Your Potassium Levels in the Blood for Safe Dialysis

Using potassium supplementation to maintain potassium levels in the blood for patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis reduced the risk of peritonitis, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD).

Understanding Peritonitis Risk in Dialysis

Dialysis - Hemodialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis and Role of Diet and Drugs
Dialysis is an artificial process for removing excess water and waste from the blood. Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are the types of dialysis.

‘The potassium supplementation in peritoneal dialysis patients was able to maintain potassium levels in the blood for up to 90 days, this lowered the risk of peritonitis.’

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Your kidneys play an important role in cleaning your blood, eliminating waste from your body, and supporting other important functions. In some people, kidneys do not work properly due to the failure of kidneys. In that case, dialysis is the treatment option to restore kidney function.

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a type of dialysis that uses the peritoneum in the abdomen as the membrane through which fluid and dissolved substances are removed. Doing this may result in the inflammation of this membrane. This is called "peritonitis."

Peritonitis can be a serious complication that led to sepsis, a life-threatening condition caused by the body’s reaction to an infection. Common symptoms of peritonitis are stomach pain with bloating or outward expansion of the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, and fever. A new study has found a solution to this complication.

Is Potassium Supplementation the Solution?

A multicentre, open-label, prospective, randomized controlled trial was conducted in 167 hypokalemic patients receiving PD. It examined if a protocol-based correction of hypokalemia to maintain serum potassium 4 to 5 mEq/L (85 participants) could improve PD-related outcomes compared to reactive potassium supplementation administered when serum potassium levels fell below 3.5 mEq/L (82 participants).

Peritonitis - Causes, Symptoms, Complications, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention
Peritonitis, an inflammation of the peritoneum, is caused due to a bacterial or fungal infection that results mostly from rupture of an abdominal viscus.

During the median follow-up time of 401 days, the protocol supplementation appeared safe and significantly reduced the risk of peritonitis.

Potassium chloride tablets at the dosage used in this study (25 ± 13 mEq/day) demonstrated promising efficacy and relatively few side effects.

Simple Test can Identify Patients at Risk for Future Dialysis or Transplant
Low-cost test helps screen patients who are at risk for future dialysis or transplant. By screening for excess protein in the urine, this simple test can identify patients at high risk of requiring dialysis or transplant.

Most participants in the study tolerated the medications well, with only a tiny number discontinuing treatment due to adverse effects. Notably, only 4% of participants in the intervention group experienced asymptomatic hyperkalemia.

Future studies with a large population can give more reliable results about this potassium supplementation strategy for peritonitis.

Initiating Dialysis With Higher Kidney Function may Pose Death Risk in Children
Children with kidney failure, who start dialysis early with a higher kidney function, are at a greater risk of dying. On the other hand, delayed dialysis may benefit asymptomatic children.

Source-Medindia