Chronic kidney disease (CKD)-associated pruritus (CKD-aP) is an underdiagnosed yet severely distressing condition that impacts 60% of patients on dialysis and many nondialysis patients with Stages 3–5 CKD. However, despite its high prevalence, there are currently limited treatment options available for these patients and a lack of treatment guidelines for clinicians. In this manuscript, we reviewed the available literature in order to evaluate the current management and treatment options for CKD-aP, including dialysis management, topical treatments, gabapentinoids, opioids and alternative medicine. We also review the available data on CKD-aP treatments in development and propose new guidelines for managing patients with CKD-aP.

Introduction: More than 15 million adults in the USA have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) places a high burden on the healthcare system. Many hospital admissions are due to an exacerbation, which is suspected to be from a viral cause. The purpose of this analysis was to compare the outcomes of patients with a positive and negative respiratory virus panel who were admitted to the hospital with COPD exacerbations. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in the Geisinger Healthcare System. The dataset included 2729 patient encounters between 1 January 2006 and 30 November 2017. Hospital length of stay was calculated as the discrete number of calendar days a patient was in the hospital. Patient encounters with a positive and negative respiratory virus panel were compared using Pearson’s chi-square or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and Student’s t-test or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests for continuous variables. Results: There were 1626 patients with a total of 2729 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation encounters. Nineteen percent of those encounters (n = 524) had a respiratory virus panel performed during their admission. Among these encounters, 161 (30.7%) had positive results, and 363 (69.3%) had negative results. For encounters with the respiratory virus panel, the mean age was 64.5, 59.5% were female, 98.9% were white, and the mean body mass index was 26.6. Those with a negative respiratory virus panel had a higher median white blood cell count (11.1 vs. 9.9, p = 0.0076). There were no other statistically significant differences in characteristics between the two groups. Respiratory virus panel positive patients had a statistically significant longer hospital length of stay. There were no significant differences with respect to being on mechanical ventilation or ventilation-free days. Conclusion: This study shows that a positive respiratory virus panel is associated with increased length of hospital stay. Early diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation patients with positive viral panel would help identify patients with a longer length of stay.

Gram-negative peritonitis in chronic peritoneal dialysis patients is difficult to treat and may result in catheter loss. <i>Brevundimonas vesicularis</i> is a Gram-negative rod bacterium which rarely causes infections in humans. A 41-year-old male receiving continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis for 5 months developed culture-negative peritonitis. He failed initial empiric treatment with intraperitoneal vancomycin and levofloxacin and thereafter intravenous gentamicin. <i>B. vesicularis</i> resistant to levofloxacin was isolated from the peritoneal fluid 21 days after his initial symptoms. Despite treatment with intravenous ceftriaxone and oral amoxicillin-clavulanate, the infection persisted, which required removal of the peritoneal catheter in order to cure this infection. We describe the features of <i>B. vesicularis</i> infection in our patient and the rarely reported additional cases.