[Treatment of renal insufficiency in patients with multiple myeloma]

Multiple myeloma is the most frequent dysproteinaemica causing renal damage. Renal damage can be manifested as acute or chronic renal failure, Tubular disfunction, urinary tract infection, or as proteinuria. The aim of this study is to present our experience in the treatment of renal failure developed during multiple myeloma. Over a ten year period we treated 16 uraemic patients with multiple myeloma and renal failure. Most patients (75% or 12 of them) came to the nephrologic department because of acute renal failure provoked by multiple myeloma. Dialysis was applied to 9 patients. The average survival rate of these patients ranged from 6.2 +/- 9.2 months, while three patients lived for 23-24 months. The combination of chemotherapy and dialysis did not produce recovery of renal function in any case of acute renal failure. All deaths were related to the evolution of multiple myeloma and none to a complication of dialysis. In conclusion, dialysis treatment should be used even in cases of uraemia, if myeloma is not in the terminal phase.