Hemodialysis with low-temperature dialysate: a long-term experience.

The effect of cool dialysate in hemodialysis (HD)-induced symptoms was studied in a group of 8 patients, neither diabetic nor anephric, with a high incidence of HD-induced hypotension (20-90%). Patients were studied during two consecutive periods of 6 months, the first one with dialysate at 37 degrees C (598 sessions) and the second one at 35 degrees C (599 sessions). Dialysis at low temperature was associated with a decrease in symptomatic hypotension (SH) (47.4 vs. 33.9%, p less than 0.001), a greater loss of weight during HD (1.52 +/- 0.03 vs. 1.71 +/- 0.03 kg, p less than 0.001) and stabilization of predialysis systolic blood pressure (SBP) at a lower level (144 +/- 0.69 vs. 139 +/- 0.98 mm Hg, p less than 0.001). At 37 degrees C, SH was associated with a higher ultrafiltration (1.71 +/- 0.05 vs. 1.32 +/- 0.05 kg, p less than 0.001). There was an improvement of symptoms both taken as a whole (55.6 vs. 45.8%, p less than 0.01) or one by one, cramps were the only exception as they increased at 35 degrees C (2.7 vs. 10.9%, p less than 0.001) being related with a greater weight loss at both temperatures (1.47 +/- 0.04 vs. 2.04 +/- 0.25 kg at 37 degrees C, p less than 0.001; 1.76 +/- 0.03 kg vs. 2.23 = 0.10 kg at 35 degrees C, p less than 0.001). In spite of the increase in the frequency of cramps, 7 out of 8 patients experienced some amelioration of dialysis symptoms (range between 7 and 21.4%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)