Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about emolitic uremic syndrome, specifically in children. And if you want to follow

along with written notes on this topic, you can follow along at zero definals.com or in the

renal and urology section of the Zero De0.0.orgies. So let's get straight into it.

Hemalytic uremic syndrome or HUS occurs where there is thrombosis within the small blood vessels

throughout the body. This is usually triggered by a bacterial toxin called the Shiger toxin,

and it leads to a classic triad of haemolytic anemia, acute kidney injury, and thrombocytopinia.

Hemolytic anemia is anemia caused by red blood cells being destroyed,

acute kidney injury is failure of the kidneys to excrete

products such as urea, and thrombocytopenia is a low platelet count.

The most common cause is a toxin produced by the E. coli-0157 bacteria called the Shigotoxin.

Another cause of gastroenteritis called Shigella also causes this

toxin. The use of antibiotics and antimotility medications such as laparamide to treat gastroenteritis

caused by these pathogens increases the risk of developing hemolytic uremic syndrome.

So how does it present? E. coli 0157 causes a brief gastroenteritis often with bloody diarrhea.

The symptoms of hemalytic uremic syndrome typically start five days after the onset of the

diarrhea. And the signs and

symptoms may include reduce urine output, hematuria or dark brown urine, abdominal pain, lethargy

and irritability, confusion, edema, hypertension and bruising.

Let's talk about the management.

Hemalytic uremic syndrome is a medical emergency and it has a 10% mortality rate.

It needs to be managed by experienced paediatricians under the guidance of a renal specialist.

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