[Effect of the temperature of the dialysis bath in diabetics]

During the dialysis procedure, arterial hypotension is one of the most common problems and it has been object of many studies. In hemodialysis, changes are produced in body volume through ultrafiltration that generate an increase in the production of thermic energy, which is removed during the treatment. The hypovolemia resulting from the removal of volume activates the sympathetic system, avoiding in this way heat loss and increasing body temperature that promotes vascular vasodilatation and interferes with the compensatory constrictive response to volume fall with consequent arterial hypotension. Patients with autonomic neuropathy would be the most affected by volume depletion and they are usually the ones that show the highest frecuency of hypotension episodes, typical of patients with diabetes. It has been proved before that the use of a cold bath does not decrease the efficiency of the dialysis treatment and improves the cardiovascular stability as well, mostly in patients proned to it, such as diabetics, elderly, and patients with cardiac failure. In this study, it was observed that patients showed low basal temperatures before dialysis treatment and that the use of bath temperature of 35.5 degrees C increased the temperature post dialysis less than with the standard bath at 37 degrees C. The bath at 35.5 degrees C decreased the episodes of arterial hypotension, with an improvement in patient's welfare, and lower requirement of attention and treatment costs.