[Hemodialysis with increased sodium].

During hemodialysis the complications associated with hemodynamic and osmolarity changes often make difficult the dialytic procedure. To make these complications diminish, a number of technical procedures have been developed, including use of bicarbonate and increased sodium concentration in the dialized. In order to explore the latter procedure, 30 hemodialysis cases were studied, 15 of them with standard sodium (135 mmol/L) and 15 with increased sodium (150 mmol/L) during the first half of the dialysis. In the 2 groups intradialytic complications were assessed and the increased weight in the later interdialytic period. Hypotension occurred in 20% of the hemodialysis cases with normal sodium and in none of those with increased sodium. The average weight increase in the interdialytic periods was 1,486 hk +/- 0.946 and 2,526 kg +/- 1,122 for hemodialysis with normal and increased sodium, respectively. It is concluded that the procedure is useful in hemodynamically unstable patients, whenever interdialytic weight gain is controlled.