Confused
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Posts: 1
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2003 10:20
Post subject: Creatinine & Bun vs KT/v and URR
One of our fellow patients just had his dialysis time reduced because his creatinine and bun were as low as a normal persons. I don't understand this as I thought the KT/v and URR were the determining factors in adequate dialysis. Can you explain this?
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Founding RN
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 172
PostPosted: 04 Feb 2003 17:06
Post subject: Confused
KT/V and URR are tools used to measure how adequate your dialysis treatment is. It does not always take into account any kidney function a patient may have.<
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>From what little you have stated, I suspect that the patient may have had improved kidney funtion that showed up on the labs. That may be why the dialysis time was decreased. In the past I have had pateints who only needed waste products removed and others who only needed help removing fluid. It all depends on the cause of kidney failure and how good the Neph is in diagnosis.
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Mimi
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 3
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2003 14:28
Post subject: Air
I have gotten air twice and the air alarm did not go off. Each time I got a good amount of pain in my chest that went into my right arm and up the right side of my neck. Each time I called for the RN immediately and she really didn't know what was happening to me, but after questioning me would finally believe I was serious stopped the tx and would examine the lines and dialyzer. She would look everything over, but I don't think she found anything. Then she would get the tx going again. I told my doctor about it and he said I probably got a few air bubbles. Well I can tell you when this happened to me it was frightening. I've wanted to know since, how a patient can look over everything at put on to make sure there's no air in the lines or dialyzer.
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Founding RN
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 172
PostPosted: 04 Feb 2003 17:10
Post subject: Mimi
Ask your tech to show you where the air detector is on your machine and then each treatment you can check to make sure that the blood line is in the detector. If it isn't, the alarms will NOT go off and air can get into you without anyone noticing. This is the only way to be sure that air does not pass into you. A machine malfunction is the other thing that needs to be considered if you ar still getting air after the above has been done.
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