Intradialytic parenteral nutrition in hemodialysis patients: Acute and chronic intervention.

Protein and calorie malnutrition have been encountered more frequently than expected in the hemodialysis patients. Intradialytic parenteral nutrition (IDPN) has been documented to improve nutritional status in hemodialysis patients in both acute and chronic settings (Henrich, 1996). The aim of this study was to support the usage of IDPN in our malnourished hemodialysis patients. Serum concentration of albumin is one of the main indicators of mortality in the dialysis population. The serum albumin concentration for six out of eight of our hemodialysis (HD) patients receiving IDPN increased significantly. There was a mean increase of 7.0 g/L of plasma albumin for the eight patients assessed. These results demonstrate that IDPN is an effective nutritional intervention for malnourished hemodialysis patients.