[Critical care nurses and continuous renal replacement therapy]

Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) has evolved within the space of a few years and is currently as widely used in intensive care units as, for example, mechanical ventilation. However, for this treatment to be useful to the critically ill patient, the nurse must have the knowledge required to solve the complications that may arise when this technique is used in order to achieve the desired objectives and to avoid complications arising from its misuse. In some units and countries, this has led to conflict about the nurses best qualified to apply these therapies. However, advances in technology have simplified the machines used. The purpose of this article was firstly, to provide a basic approximation to knowledge of the continuous extrarenal purification system and, secondly, to describe the nursing care, which can be divided into three parts: catheter care, care of the circuit, and patient care for the appropriate use of CRRT. Nurses initially perceive CRRT as being difficult to apply but with proper training these treatments become one more therapy within the framework of advanced life support treatment of critically the ill.