Pruritus in Hemodialysed Patients

Abstract

We classified 51 hemodialysed patients with pruritus into four groups according to the severity of itching and evaluated the duration of hemodialysis, and urea nitrogen, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, parathormone, uremic acid in the blood, as well as any skin changes in each group. The results were as follows: (i) the patients who were in the long term hemodialiser group complained of severe itching; (ii) statistically, there was no difference between the pruritic group and non-pruritic group in regard to age and biochemical findings; and (iii) as to skin changes, the severe pruritic group showed several skin symptoms (eg: whole body xerosis, pigmentation, prurigo, nail deformity, and acquired perforating disease), although both the non- and local pruritic groups showed a few skin symptoms such as focal xerosis. Therefore we consider that xerosis may be responsible for the pruritus in hemodialysed patients.