Correction of postoperative metabolic alkalosis and renal failure by hemodialysis

Three postoperative patients with oliguirc renal failure and hypochloremic metabolic alkalosis were treated with hemodialysis using a specailly prepared high-chloride, low-acetate dialysate. This mode of therapy corrected the metabolic abnormalities and was significantly more effective than treatment with commercially available high-acetate dialysate at increasing the serum chloride and hydrogen ion concentration. Furthermore, hemodialysis with high-chloride, low-acetate dialysate corrected the clinical sequelae of hypoventilation, cardiac arrhythmia, and neuromuscular irritability associated with metabolic alkalosis while treating uremia simultaneously.