Neurologic symptoms and death associated with the use of cellulose acetate dialyzers.
ASN 30th Annual Meeting, San Antonio
J Am Soc Nephrol (Sep) 8:243A 1997
A very strange set of severe "dialyzer" reactions is reported that occurred in September of 1996, in patients dialyzed with very old (manufactured in 1985) cellulose acetate dialyzers. Symptoms included vision and hearing loss within 48 hours of initiating hemodialysis. One patient had a cardiac arrest within 48 hours of the index dialysis, but it was unclear if this was related. The visual and auditory loss was profound and apparently irreversible.
Comment: This case should not repeat itself, although dialyzers until recently did not have a marked expiration date (and I'm not sure that all do even now). The cause of the reaction is completely unknown, which is a bit unsettling, and the reactions bear no resemblance whatsoever to previously reported adverse dialyzer reactions (except for one vaguely similar report from Japan, the reference to which I don't have at hand). See also the the October 1996 CDC query on this topic. (John T. Daugirdas, M.D., University of Illinois at Chicago)
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ASN 30th Annual Meeting, San Antonio
Basic hemodialysis : Complications (acute)
Basic hemodialysis : Dialyzers