Why Do Patients on Dialysis Have Headache

Headache is a common complication of dialysis and its incidence is about 5%. The main causes of headache for the patients on dialysis are as follows:

1. Balance disturbance syndrome

Balance disturbance syndrome affects about 3~20 of the total population on dialysis and mainly occurs among the patients who start dialysis for a short time. Proper management of dialysis is the key to declining balance disturbance syndrome. The doctors should increase the sodium concentration in the dialysis fluid or add mannitol into the dialysis fluid in order to avoid balance disturbance syndrome.

2. High blood pressure

High blood pressure also can lead to headache. If the patients keep nifedipine or captopril, it will be effective to moderate high blood pressure. If their high blood pressure is out of control, they should stop dialysis at once. Once they stop dialysis, their blood pressure will recover normal, their headache will also disappear.

3. Cerebral hemorrhage

As the patients on dialysis are usually accompanied by high blood pressure and cerebral arteriosclerosis, the incidence of cerebral hemorrhage also rise accordingly. Excessive use of anticoagulant or mild trauma may cause cerebral hemorrhage. For the patients with Polycystic Kidney Disease, rupturing of cerebral aneurysm may also lead to cerebrovascular accident leading to headache. Moreover, subdural hematomas and cerebral embolism also can result in headache.

4. Other causes

In dialysis, if hemolysis occurs or the patients can not tolerate acetate and so on, they also may have headache.


Therefore, once the patients on dialysis have headache, they should reflect to their doctors at once. The doctors should find out the specific cause of headache and receive relative measures to decline the damage greatly.