Patients' safety

Patients' safety and haemodialysis devices.

Chronic and acute extracorporeal detoxification treatments, such as haemodialysis, haemofiltration, haemodiafiltration or haemoperfusion, clearly have become parts of the standard armamentarium of modern medicine. The necessary technical equipment has been transformed in the course of the last decades from prototype-like monsters (which nobody dared to touch without thorough education) to handy...

Patient safety and patients' rights.

Upon initial examination, efforts toward achieving these 2 goals appear philosophically complementary. For example, both tout as a primary benefit improvement of access to health care services. However, closer inspection of these initiatives' more prominent features reveals seemingly irreconcilable demands. As described below, the push toward consumer-driven health plans as a way to offer affor...

Metformin: safety in cardiac patients.

Metformin is a biguanide, insulin sensitiser that reduces blood sugar levels. There are concerns about the risk of lactic acidosis in patients receiving metformin who have procedures requiring iodinated contrast, and in those with renal impairment or heart failure. The data on which these concerns are based are reviewed, with the conclusion that metformin treatment is rarely to blame for lactic...

safety of raloxifene in hemodialysis patients

Safety of Raloxifene in Hemodialysis Patients

With interest I read the article from Saito and colleagues about “the effects of raloxifene on bone metabolism in hemodialysis patients with type 2 diabetes” (1). The article addresses the possibility of treatment with raloxifene for osteoporosis in these patients. Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator could be a good option, because it has no known renal side effects like bisphos...