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 renal support.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero tofinals.com slash renal support

or in the anesthetics and ICU section of the zero definals surgery book.

So let's get straight into it.

Acute kidney injury requiring dialysis is a common reason for admission to the intensive care unit.

And it's also a common complication seen in patients that are in the intensive care unit

for other conditions.

Acute renal failure is a life-threatening condition with a high mortality.

Dialysis is a method for performing the filtration tasks of the kidneys artificially.

It involves removing excess fluid, solutes and waste products from the blood.

Let's talk about the indications for acute dialysis.

You can use the mnemonic A-E-I-O-U to remember the indications for acute dialysis in patients with a severe acute kidney

injury. A is for acidosis, and this has to be severe and not responding to treatment.

E is for electrolyte abnormalities, particularly treatment-resistant hypercalalaemia or erased potassium, I for intoxication

with overdose of certain medications, O for edema referring to severe and unresponsive pulmonary

edema, and U for uremia with symptoms such as seizures or reduced consciousness.

We need to talk about the options for dialysis. There are two options for dialysis in patients

with renal failure, peritoneal dialysis, which is rarely used in acute renal failure and hemodialysis. Peritoneal dialysis is very

rarely used in acute kidney injury and is generally limited to use in patients with chronic kidney

disease. So let's talk in more detail about haemodialysis.

With hemodialysis, patients have their blood filtered by a hemodialysis machine.

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