Comparative Evaluation of Continuous Veno-venous Hemodiafiltration and Continuous Arterio-Venous Hemodiafiltration in Patients of Hepatic Failure and / or Hepatorenal Syndrome.

OBJECTIVES: Continuous renal replacement therapies (CRRT) are the most favoured form of renal replacement therapies (RRT) in patients of decompensated liver cirrhosis and hepatorenal syndrome (HRS). The role of CRRT has been limited only to acute kidney injury and HRS in prior studies. We therefore aimed to evaluate the role of two different modes of CRRT- CVVHDF and CAVHDF in patients of hepatic failure and / or hepatorenal syndrome in reducing hyperbilirubinemia, uremia and fluid overload.
METHODS: 30 critically ill patients of hepatic failure and /or HRS were randomly divided into two groups of 15 cases each. Group A patients received continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF), whereas group B patients underwent continuous arterio-venous hemodiafiltration (CAVHDF). The inclusion criteria were hepatic failure and / or hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) with hyperbilirubinemia and fluid overload in hemodynamically unstable patients, who were unfit for conventional hemodialysis.
RESULTS: Despite hemodynamic fragility of the subjects, both the procedures were effective in achieving biochemical and clinical improvements. There was a significant fall in blood urea, serum creatinine and serum bilirubin at the end of procedures. After mean 27.32 h of CVVHDF and 27.02 h of CAVHDF, blood urea decreased to 39.54 ± 28.6 mg/dl and 45.11 ± 31.9 mg/dl in respective groups. Serum bilirubin decreased to 7.01 ± 6.4 mg/dl and 3.21 ± 1.99 mg/dl in group A and B. All the patients had gradual and steady improvement in pH and bicarbonate concentration towards normal. Urea clearance was 24.98 ± 1.09 ml/min and 22.72 ± 1.58 ml/min respectively in the two groups, whereas bilirubin clearance was 27.77 ± 1.38 ml/min and 28.74 ± 0.3 ml/min in group A and B respectively. Ultrafiltration rate had mean value of 141.66 ± 22.33 ml/h in group A and 134.26 ± 38.71 ml/h in group B. Both the modes of CRRT were well tolerated without any new episodes of hypotension secondary to the procedures and requirement of inotropes didn't change significantly. Symptomatic relief and improvement in clinical and biochemical parameters were observed in all the cases. There were no significant differences between the results of two groups. Complication rate was less and survival was 30%.
CONCLUSION: Continuous hemodiafiltration is probably the best available modality of CRRT to treat hemodynamically unstable and critically ill patients of hepatic failure and/ or hepatorenal syndrome and it should be advocated more frequently. © Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 2011.