Surgery in chronic dialysis patients

During recent years there has been a continuous increase in the number of patients with end-stage renal failure who require long-term dialysis. The purpose of this retrospective work was to look at the number and type of operations performed and the postoperative outcome and complications that may be typical for these patients. This report details our experience with surgery in chronic dialysis patients, focusing mainly on major surgical procedures. During 21 years (1972-93) 22 patients on long-term hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis underwent 44 operations. All access operations and parathyroidectomies were excluded. Each patient underwent between 1 and 6 operations; 27 (61.4%) operations were elective and 17 (38.6%) were emergencies. The most common type of operation performed was abdominal surgery and hernia repair; the others, in decreasing order, were urological operations, amputations, and vascular surgery. Postoperative complications occurred in 54% of the operations, the most common being hyperkalemia in 32%, infectious complications in 16%, and bleeding in 11%. One patient (2%) died postoperatively; the cause was most probably secondary to hyperkalemia and a fatal arrhythmia. From a review of the literature and from the results of our study it appears that surgery in uremic patients can be performed with acceptable results in terms of morbidity and mortality rates. Complications, such as hyperkalemia, a fall in blood pressure, and bleeding, are expected and preventive measures should therefore be taken. Perioperative measures are recommended to minimize complications.