Common Side Effects of Dialysis

When CKD develops into stage 5, the kidney function is almost damaged completely. In this situation, doctors will recommend patients to do dialysis. Dialysis can replace the kidney to remove the wastes and fluids from the body. However, doing dialysis has side effects. Now we will introduce common side effects of dialysis for you.
In general, there are two major types of dialysis, which are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Most patients with stage 5 choose hemodialysis, which is the most common type of dialysis.
The common side effects of hemodialysis:
1. Tiredness. Patients with dialysis feels tired all the time. Some causes may lead to fatigue, which are below:
-- In the dialysis process, patients need to lie in bed for four or five hours.
-- Low dry weight and too much intake of fluids.
-- Anxiety and some other negative emotions caused by dialysis.
-- Dialysis aggravates anemia and low blood pressure.
Patients with dialysis can discuss with the dietitian that if a little more energy can be added in the diet. Taking some exercise helps alleviate fatigue. At the beginning, they may have difficulty with exercise because of short breath. However, if they insist, exercise will be easy for them some time later. The exercise we recommend is walking, running and cycling.
2. Low in blood pressure. When patients do dialysis, blood is pumped out largely, leading to low level of blood pressure. Gaining excessive fluids between sessions of dialysis leads to low blood pressure, thus patients must not drink much water in daily life. Besides, patients with dialysis often take some medicines for lowering blood pressure. Before doing dialysis, patients should make an adjustment to doses of medicines.
Low blood pressure may cause nausea and dizziness.
3. Infections. In the dialysis process, staphylococcus aureus bacteria can lead to the infection of blood. When infected, patients have the symptoms of having a temperature and dizziness.
In this situation, patients should go to the hospital as soon as possible.
4. Muscle cramps. It is a very common complication during the process of dialysis. It means that muscles make an reaction to the blood loss. When muscle cramps occur, dialysis has to be terminated. The pathological causes are not clear, but cramps tend to happen near the end of hemodialysis treatments, which is associated with plasma osmolality and extracellular fluid volume.
In the dialysis process, if muscle cramps occur, patients need to tell doctors. Patients can ask the doctor for some medicine to alleviate it.
5.Restless leg syndrome. It means patients keep moving their legs because of leg nerves and muscles making crawly or prickly sensations. Restless leg syndrome is related to some kidney diseases, diabetes, hardening of the arteries, or vitamin B deficiency, so it's very important to let doctors know if this symptom occurs.
6.Skin itching. The causes are below:
- As the kidney is severely damaged, wastes and toxins build up in the body.
- The imbalance of Phosphorus and calcium. Less calcium in the blood can stimulate parathyroid glands to release parathyroid hormone, which causes skin itching.
- Medicines taken by patients may lead to itching.
Apart from the above, patients may have problems with sleeping, bones and emotions.
The common side effects of peritoneal dialysis
1. Peritonitis. When patients do peritoneal dialysis, bacterial infection of the peritoneum (peritonitis) can occur because of unsterilized equipment. After injected, patients have poor appetite, nausea and abdominal pain.
The doctors inject antibiotics in the the tissue of the peritoneum to treat peritonitis.
2. Hernia. In peritoneal dialysis, insertion of the catheter can make muscles of the abdominal wall become weak. And pumping the blood puts a strain on muscles of the abdomen，which leads to hernia.
Hernia can be repaired through surgery.
3. Abdomen pain because of dialyzers and dialyzates.
4. Swelling and pulmonary edema.
5. Dialysis tubular blockage.
6. Protein loss and low potassium.
Besides, patients with peritoneal dialysis may have weight gain and malnutrition.

Patients with stage 5 of CKD should decide whether to do dialysis carefully, because there are many side effects. As a consequently, if there aren’t many toxins building up and much swelling in the body, patients at stage 5 don’t have to do dialysis and can be treated with other methods. Nevertheless, if dialysis is very essential, they need to consult the doctor in details to choose which type of dialysis is the most suitable.