Complication of Peritoneal Dialysis: Malnutrition

Malnutrition is very common in Chronic Renal Failure. The patients also lose much nutrition in dialysis, especially hemodialysis. Moreover, the patients on dialysis still have to keep a strict diet. Those factors can aggravate the patients’ malnutrition greatly. The main causes of malnutrition for the patients on dialysis are as follows:

Generally speaking, malnutrition refers to protein malnutrition resulting from protein loss. Therefore are many causes of malnutrition besides Renal Failure itself. For the patients on peritoneal dialysis, there are still many other causes of malnutrition for the patients.

1. Protein loss in peritoneal dialysis: In peritoneal dialysis, the patients may loss various kinds of protein in varying degrees and the protein loss may reach 10 grams per day.

2. Less nutrition intake and under utilization: Digestive diseases are the earliest symptoms of Uremia. Before dialysis, nearly all patients have decline in appetite and even nausea or vomit. Moreover, the need to keep a low-protein diet. After starting peritoneal dialysis, the patients need to absorb a large amount of glucose from the dialysis fluid. Consequently, they may have decline in appetite thus causing decreased decline and nutrition insufficiency. Moreover, some dialysis fluid may leave in the abdomen thus leading to abdominal distention. It is also a cause of decline in appetite.

3. Inadequate dialysis: If the patients can not get adequate dialysis, they are very likely to have decline in appetite and other digestive systems. For the patients with long-term peritoneal dialysis, they often have mild metabolic acidosis. It also can influence the patients’ nutrition intake and cause more protein be discomposed.

4. Residual renal function: When starting peritoneal dialysis, the more residual renal function they have, the better nutrition condition they keep.

5. Mental and financial factors: If the patients have strong resistance against peritoneal dialysis or can financial burden, it may also cause malnutrition.


However, the patients on peritoneal dialysis can not avoid the above complications. Therefore, if possible, they should find a better therapy in time so as to avoid the above complications. If you want to how to avoid dialysis and find a better therapy method, please consult us on line or email to kidney-treatment@hotmail.com.