Continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration for the treatment of spontaneous tumor lysis syndrome complicated by acute renal failure and severe hyperuricemia.

We describe a case of Burkitt's lymphoma presenting as spontaneous tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) complicated by severe hyperuricemia and anuric acute renal failure presumed to be secondary to uric acid nephropathy. The patient was treated with continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) using a dialysate flow rate of 2.5 l/h, and a replacement fluid rate of 1.5 l/h (administered in pre-dilution). Mean clearances during CVVHDF for urea, creatinine, uric acid, and phosphorus were, respectively, 55.8 +/- 3.8, 48.9 +/- 2.6, 45.1 +/- 2.6 and 47.0 +/- 3.3 ml/min (or 80, 70, 65 and 68 l/day, respectively). Serum urea, creatinine, uric acid, and phosphorus decreased from 42 to 9 mmol/l, 533 to 189 micromol/l, 1980 to 372 micromol/l, and 2.0 to 1.4 mmol/l, respectively, after 48 hours of CVVHDF. Previously, we reported the use of continuous arteriovenous hemodialysis (CAVHD) at a high dialysate flow rate of 4 l/h for the treatment of acute renal failure and TLS, which provided excellent continuous clearances of small molecular weight solutes. This last modality was very efficient and prevented deleterious rebound in serum solute concentrations frequently observed in TLS after intermittent hemodialysis (IHD). It was concluded that high-dialysate flow rate CAVHD was a more potent form of treatment than conventional IHD. With recent advances in technology, veno-venous continuous renal replacement therapies are becoming more popular than arterio-venous modalities since they are safer and less cumbersome. Furthermore, flow rates being precisely regulated, solute clearances can be steadily maintained. With CVVHDF flow rates as used in this report, we achieved excellent solute clearances and metabolic control. We propose CVVHDF as an ideal treatment for acute renal failure in TLS. In our opinion, CVVHDF is an advantageous alternative to treat TLS complicated by acute renal failure.