Why Does the Kidney Failure Patients’ Blood Pressure increasing after Starting Dialysis

It is so painful for the kidney failure patients to do the dialysis, because there are a lot of the complication to the kidney failure patients. Such as, most of the kidney failure patients appear the high blood pressure after the dialysis.
Most patients are on blood pressure lowering medications when they first start dialysis for kidney failure. However, many of them also have excess fluid in their bodies, so blood pressure may improve once a patient starts regular dialysis. Nonetheless, approximately 60 percent of hemodialysis patients and 30 percent of patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) still have high blood pressure that requires medicines.

In hemodialysis, patients usually get treatments three times per week. Typically, the weight and the excess fluid in the patient’s body go up before dialysis, and down after dialysis. As you might expect, the blood pressure also tends to be highest in the hours before a hemodialysis treatment and lowest afterwards. In fact, symptoms of low blood pressure are common after hemodialysis treatments. These symptoms include cramping, nausea, dizziness and light-headedness. It is interesting to note that high blood pressure is less common in hemodialysis patients who get daily treatments, such as those on home hemodialysis (HHD). A majority of these home hemodialysis patients who get more frequent dialysis have normal blood pressures and do not need to take blood pressure medicines.
Keeping the blood pressure in optimal range first requires that a person’s fluid be managed well. Too little fluid in the body may cause the blood pressure to be low, and can be associated with symptoms such as leg cramps, nausea and lightheadedness. Too much fluid may cause the blood pressure to be high, and can result in ankle or facial swelling, chest fullness or shortness of breath. It is often helpful for each patient to identify an ideal body weight to aim for each day. When the patient’s weight is high and blood pressure is up, there is probably too much fluid in the body. When the patient’s weight is down and the blood pressure is low, dehydration may exist with too little fluid. Achieving the proper weight and fluid status can usually be accomplished by adjusting the concentration of dextrose – a type of sugar – in PD dialysate exchanges under the supervision of a nephrologist and peritoneal dialysis nurse. Reducing your daily intake of salt and liquids are other important tools to help keep the fluid off and the blood pressure down.


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