The Effect of Increasing Blood Flow Rate on Severity of Uremic Pruritus in Hemodialysis Patients: A Single Clinical Trial

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough the prevalence of uremic pruritus has decreased compared to the past, the problem still remains as a matter of health and a major challenge of research in medical field, and has no effective treatment at present. This study aimed to investigate the effect of increasing blood flow rate on severity of uremic pruritus in hemodialysis patients in Iran. MethodsThis clinical trial was performed on 60 hemodialysis patients that referred to hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences and these patients were selected through the convenience method and were treated for four weeks. They were divided into two groups of experimental and control as random allocation block, and studied for 4 weeks. Information on pruritus severity was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire in three steps of before intervention and two and four weeks after start of intervention. The rate of blood flow was increased in the first two weeks and the second two weeks by 25 and 50 rounds per minute (rpm) compared to the mean rate of blood flow of hemodialysis device in the last two sessions before intervention. Data were analyzed using the tests Mann–Whitney, Fisher, and t-test. ResultsAnalysis of data from 50 persons in both groups who completed the study revealed a significant difference between the groups in the severity of pruritus between the two sessions of hemodialysis (pruritus at home) at the end of the first two weeks of the intervention (<0.05) and the number of cases of pruritus (<0.05) at the end of the study. ConclusionsIncreasing blood flow for hemodialysis machine can induce significant statistical and clinical reduction in the severity and the frequency of pruritus in hemodialysis patients and can be help to be improve the quality of life of these persons by increased the blood flow rate.