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YOUR INTENSIVE CARE HOTLINE - How Can Dialysis/CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Help My Dad with Heart Failure in ICU? Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care

/ Patrik Hutzel - Critical Care Nurse Consultant / No Comments

How Can Dialysis/CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Help My Dad with Heart Failure in ICU? Quick Tip for Families in Intensive Care

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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

Today, I want to showcase again what you get actually when you are one of our members in our membership for families of critically ill patients because we basically answer all questions, intensive care related, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email. I just want to read out an email today from a paying member that uses our service, what questions we answer, what access level you get to me and my team, and also what value you get more importantly.

So, let me read out an email exchange from a reader with me and my team. So, the member asks, “I’m trying to learn about dialysis and understand what to expect. Can you help me with that, please?”

So, here is our answer,

“The typical dialysis is usually done for 3 to 4 hours while CRRT, which stands for Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy, runs continuously for 24 hours. This type of dialysis is done for unstable patients with low blood pressure who cannot tolerate short, rapid dialysis. CRRT provides more gentle removal of waste and fluid than the standard hemodialysis.

You can also check this link to help you understand dialysis, “Why your critically loved one might need dialysis (kidney machine) or hemofiltration for kidney failure (renal failure) and have a dialysis machine attached to them?” We’ll link to that article below this video in the written version of this video blog.

The next question that the member had was, “they said when you’re on CRRT, you can’t do pressure support trials from the ventilator because it’s unsafe or too much for the body to handle. Is that true?” Yes. When weaning from mechanical ventilation, more energy will be needed for breathing, leaving less of a reserve for other activities like dialysis. In addition, your dad’s poor cardiovascular performance, as evidenced by hypotension and having two vasopressors currently, can limit his ability to tolerate the ventilator weaning and may result in hypoxemia, which is low oxygen in the blood. They need an adequate oxygen supplement while on dialysis to properly oxygenate the tissues.

Next question the member had, “Will my dad still urinate while on dialysis or any kind of dialysis?” Yes, if there is kidney recovery.

Next question the reader had was, “How do they know when he doesn’t need dialysis anymore?” CRRT is used until patients start showing signs of their own kidney recovering (patients starts making urine) or until they have more stable blood pressure and can tolerate regular dialysis.

Next question that the member had, “Since dialysis removes excess fluid. Will that help my dad’s heart and lungs work better?” The CRRT on dialysis helps in removing excess fluids from the lungs, helping your dad to breathe easily. Dialysis or CRRT on heart failure patients does not really help in the recovery of the heart failure, but it does help in taking off fluids from the heart so that the heart finds it easier to beat.

Number 6, “I understand that dialysis will make your blood pressure lower because it’s taking blood out of your body. But the way that dialysis removes excess fluids, doesn’t that increase blood pressure?” Yes, some patients develop hypertension, which is high blood pressure during dialysis, but this may not apply to your dad at this stage.

Number 7, “How much fluids will be removed?” The fluid to be removed depends on the doctor’s order. Some start at 500 mls, then progress to 1000 mls and then 1500 mls, depending on how much your dad can tolerate.

Number 8, “Will it take multiple sessions for all of the excess fluids to be removed?” Yes, it will. Most of the patients on CRRT are unable to make urine because of the kidney failure. However, even if the patient starts making urine, the filtrating capacity of the kidneys takes a longer time to recover. It can be weeks or months before the kidney is able to filter solutes and get rid of wastes.

So, this is just one of many examples what you get if you are one of our members. Again, we answer all questions intensive care related. You can always upgrade to phone options and then you can get me on the phone as well and you can do so with a 20% discount if you are a member. That’s how valuable the membership is. Also, you have access to me and my team. Basically, you have access to decades of intensive care experienced in our team. So, there’s really no question we can’t answer on our team because we’ve got the expertise and the experience.

So, if you have a loved one in intensive care, go and check out our membership at intensivecaresupport.org. There, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in a membership area and via email. You can also upgrade to one-to-one consulting and advocacy with me over the phone, via Skype, on Zoom, on WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I can also represent you in family meetings. I talk to doctors and nurses directly and so forth.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, you can go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or if you have questions about the membership, or simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

We also offer second opinions and medical record reviews in real time. That’s part of what we do as well. We look at medical records in real time again, contact us for that. We also review medical records after intensive care if you have unanswered questions. If you need closure or if you’re simply suspecting medical negligence, we’re helping with all of that as well.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.

 

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