Epidemiology of dialysis induced hypotension.

Factors associated with an excessive rate of dialysis induced symptomatic hypotension (SH) were analysed in a population of 1110 patients treated by chronic haemodialysis in 32 French dialysis centres. Significant risk factors for SH were female sex, diabetic nephropathy as the primary renal disease, two weekly dialysis schedule instead of three, use of Coil type dialysers instead of parallel-flow or hollow-fibre dialysers, low dialysate osmolarity, low dialysate K, high body weight subtraction during sessions, low predialysis plasma proteins, high predialysis blood urea, and low nerve conduction velocity. On a statistical basis, the results show the predominance of volume depletion over dialysate composition or neuropathy.