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Background: Continuous renal replacement therapy (CKRT) is delivered to some of the most critically ill patients in hospitals. This therapy is expensive and requires coordination of multidisciplinary teams to ensure the prescribed dose is delivered. With increased demands on the critical care nursing staff and increased complexities of patients admitted to critical care units, we evaluated the role of specialized renal technologists in ensuring the prescribed dose is delivered. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of supporting intensive care unit nurses with specialized renal technologists on optimizing efficiency of CKRT sessions in the United Arab Emirates., Methods: This is a retrospective study that compared critically ill patients on CKRT overseen by specialized renal technologists versus who are non-covered in the year 2021., Results: A total of 331 sessions on 158 patients were included in the study. The mean filter life was longer in specialized renal technologists-covered patients compared to the non-covered group (66 vs. 59 h, p = 0.019). After adjustment by multiple regression analysis for risk factors (i.e., age, gender, mechanical ventilation, sepsis, mean arterial pressure, vasopressors, and SOFA) that may affect CKRT machines' filter life, presence of a specialized renal technologists resulted in significantly longer filter life (co-efficient 0.129; CI 95% 1.080, 11.970; p-value: 0.019)., Conclusion: Our study suggests that specialized renal technologists play a vital role in prolonging CKRT machine's filter life span and optimizing CKRT machine's efficiency. Further research should focus on other potential benefits of having specialized renal technologists performing CKRT sessions, and to confirm the finding of this study. Additionally, a cost-benefit analysis could be conducted to determine the economic impact of having specialized teams performing CKRT., (© 2024 International Society for Hemodialysis.)

Recurrent stenosis due to neo-intimal hyperplasia leads to loss of patency in an established hemodialysis access. The current treatment strategy to maintain patency involves percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with or without stent placement. There are several key points that an interventionalist needs to weigh before deciding to place a stent. These include appropriateness of stent placement, the long term consequences, the type of stent to be deployed, the size of stent and finally the impact on cannulation during dialysis. A general nephrologist needs to be aware of the various benefits and pitfalls of stent placement. The current review provides basic information that will educate the dialysis provider about stents and its use in treating dysfunctional hemodialysis access using commonly encountered clinical scenarios., (© 2017 International Society for Hemodialysis.)

Hyperammonemia, post-orthotopic lung transplantation, is a rare but mostly fatal complication. Various therapies, including those to decrease ammonia generation, increase nitrogen excretion, and several dialytic methods for removing ammonia have been tried. We describe three lung transplant recipients who developed acute hyperammonemia early after transplantation. Two of the three patients survived after a multidisciplinary approach including discontinuation of drugs, which impair urea cycle, aggressive ammonia reduction with prolonged daily intermittent hemodialysis (HD), and overnight slow low-efficiency dialysis in conjunction with early weaning of steroids and other therapeutic measures. Our experience suggests that early initiation of dialysis, high dialysis dose, increased frequency, and HD preferably to less efficient modalities increases survival in these patients., (© 2013 International Society for Hemodialysis.)