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What considerations do you make to the dialysis prescription for a pregnant patient on peritoneal dialysis?

1 Answer
Mednet MemberInvited Expert
Nephrology · UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital (UCH)
Answered on

It is recommended that the BUN in pregnant dialysis patients be kept below 50 mg/dL at all times. For HD patients this requires intensification dialysis, often to 4-6 hours, 5 or 6 times weekly. Though less well studied for patients on PD, I similarly target a steady-state BUN level below 50 mg/dL. This will require some combination of larger volumes and/or more time on dialysis (e.g., adding a day dwell, etc.). This raises two major concerns:

  1. Is this achievable?
  2. Can women with a gravid uterus tolerate the added large volumes of peritoneal dialysate required to accomplish this?

From a practical standpoint, the answer is that this depends on the degree of residual kidney function (RKF) still present: more RKF translates into a (relatively...

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