Effect of dialyser biocompatibility on recovery from acute renal failure after cadaver renal transplantation

Background. It has been reported that patients with acute renal failure (AR F) requiring haemodialysis show an improved recovery of renal function when the dialysis treatment is performed using a biocompatible membrane rather than a bioincompatible membrane. However, most recent published human trial s have not been able to confirm these findings. Method. Over a 2-year period, we prospectively studied 53 patients with ARF after cadaver renal transplantation who required haemodialysis and randomi zed them into two treatment groups. One group underwent dialysis with a cup rophane membrane and the other group underwent haemodialysis with a more bi ocompatible membrane, polysulfone. All patients received an immunosuppressi ve regimen which included azathioprine, prednisone and cyclosporine. Results. There was no difference by patient characteristics or immunosuppre ssive regimen before acute tubular necrosis (ATN) recovery. In both groups the number of haemodialysis sessions required prior to the recovery of rena l function (6.57+/-2.79 vs 6.05+/-2.40), the number of oliguric days (16.25 +/-5.14 vs 14.40+/-4.67) and the number of hospital days (33.38+/-12.85 vs 30.10+/-11.00), were not statistically different. There was also no differe nce in long-term allograft outcome. Conclusion. Our data demonstrate that the use of a more biocompatible membr ane had no influence on the recovery from acute renal failure after renal t ransplantation.