Abstract
The capacity of activated charcoal to remove toxins from the blood is well established. Its poor biocompatibility, inability to remove urea, electrolytes and water, and high cost have so far been the major objection to a wider use of charcoal with chronic uremic patients.
The availability of a charcoal coated by a new highly hydrophilic methacrylate based membrane enabled us to keep 18 uremic patients on a combined hemodialysis-hemoperfusion schedule for 4–52 weeks. Investigations concerned patients in whom relapsing signs of uremia occurred despite technically adequate dialysis, and other cases where dialysis was both technically and clinically adequate. In the first group of patients, the conbined programme led to an improvement of the dialysis resistent clinical signs, while certain positive metabolic effects were also observed. In the second group, the hemodialysis-hemoperfusion treatment allowed a reduction of about 30% in time of treatment per week.
Tolerance of the new coated charcoal was good throughout treatment in terms both of biocompatibility and of side effects.
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