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Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Dosing in the Severely Underweight: A Case Report
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Dosing in the Severely Underweight: A Case Report

Benjamin R. Griffin, Sophia Ambruso, Anna Jovanovich, Anip Bansal, Stu Linas and James Dylewski
Kidney medicine, Vol.1(4), pp.217-220
07/01/2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.xkme.2019.04.007
PMCID: PMC7380368
PMID: 32734202
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2019.04.007View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Guidelines recommend that patients treated with continuous renal replacement therapy be delivered an effluent dose of 20 to 25 mL/kg/h. There is debate, especially at the extremes of body mass index, as to whether actual or ideal body weight (IBW) should be used in these dose calculations. A middle-aged woman with severe anorexia presented with 48 hours of altered mental status. Laboratory tests showed severe metabolic acidosis necessitating intubation, which was ultimately found to be due to nonprescribed use of metformin for weight loss. The patient became anuric and was initiated on continuous venovenous hemodialysis. Due to refractory acidosis, the modality was converted to continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration by adding postfilter hypertonic bicarbonate solution. Based on changes in sodium and bicarbonate levels over 4 hours with hypertonic bicarbonate solution, we were able to calculate an "effective" volume of distribution for this severely underweight patient. Our calculations suggest that IBW gives a better approximation of effective volume of distribution than actual body weight in a severely underweight woman. Inadequate effluent flow rate calculated based on actual rather than IBW may lead to insufficient correction of metabolic derangements in extremely underweight patients. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the National Kidney Foundation, Inc.
Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Urology & Nephrology

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