A n 84-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital for evaluation of shortness of breath, hypoxia, and hypotension occurring during hemodialysis. She had recently been diagnosed as having end-stage renal failure due to membranous nephropathy and had started dialysis treatment 3 weeks previously. She had a history of hypertension, and an echocardiogram obtained 2 weeks before admission showed mild concentric left ventricular hypertrophy. Her medications included a β-blocker and oral phosphate binder. She denied smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol.Review of her outpatient records revealed that dialysis via a tunneled catheter placed in the right internal jugular vein had been tolerated well initially. In the middle of the second week of treatment, she began to experience shortness of breath associated with hypoxia and hypotension a few minutes after the start of each dialysis, and elevated pressure was noted in the dialysis line at each session. On one occasion, the entire dialyzer was clotted. She had no chest pain, fever, chills, or electrocardiographic changes during these episodes. Although most of her treatments had to be terminated within an hour because the symptoms became intolerable, they abated within 15 to 30 minutes after each session. Fearful of such dialysis-related episodes, the patient was seriously contemplating discontinuing her dialysis treatment.On admission 1 day after the most recent dialysis attempt, physical examination revealed the following: blood pressure, 180/96 mm Hg; pulse rate, 78 beats/min and regular; respiratory rate, 18 breaths/min; and temperature, 36.8°C. Her oxygen saturation was 92% while receiving oxygen at 2 L/min via nasal cannula. Bilateral rales were audible in two-thirds of the lung field bilaterally, and 3+ pitting edema was noted in both lower extremities.
. Reaction to the dialyzer or a medication given during dialysisDialysis line infection could be associated with episodic sepsislike illness. In such cases, each dialysis through the infected line results in a transient shower of bacteria from the line into the bloodstream, leading to episodes of fever, chills, and, less frequently, hypotension. For the entire duration of our patient's recurrent dialysis-associated illness, fever and chills were not observed. Therefore, although the possibility of line infection should be ruled out, her presentation is atypical.Fluid overload with pulmonary congestion could cause shortness of breath and hypoxia but should not repeatedly cause hypotension. Dialysis is a well-known efficacious method for removal of excess fluid. In our patient, the removal of excess fluid through dialysis had been curtailed because of the development of hypotension. Thus, fluid overload was a consequence, rather than the cause, of her symptoms.Large-volume uremia-associated pericardial effusion could cause intradialytic hypotension due to tamponade and be associated with shortness of breath and hypoxia. However, this scenario is unlikely in our patient because echocardiography obtained at the onse...