Abstract
This report presents a 63-year-old female who had been undergoing hemodialysis (HD) therapy due to chronic renal failure caused by type 2 diabetic nephropathy since 56 years of age. She had been treated by a doctor of orthopedics because increasing pain in the right leg had become exacerbated over the course of two months. However, the pain was not relieved. An anesthesiologist diagnosed her as having peripheral neuropathic pain due to diabetic neuropathy. She was prescribed 150mg pregabalin a day. She became somnolent after three days and complained of dizziness and a sense of exhaustion. She was admitted to the hospital the following day. The neurological findings, physical findings, brain CT and the blood indicated she was experiencing side effects of pregabalin. She underwent HD for 3 consecutive days, and her signs and symptoms disappeared after the 3rd HD. The plasma pregabalin level was 17.4μg/mL just before the first HD, which was 2.8 times higher than the recommended maximum concentration of a maintenance dose. The level of pregabalin was reduced by 60% following HD. This case emphasizes the importance of prescribing the appropriate dosage of pregabalin for the patients with impaired renal function, and that this drug could be safely removed by HD.
