Medical Nutrition Therapy for Hemodialysis Patients

The purposes of medical nutrition therapy in dialysis patients are to promote the nutrition to correct patients’ appetite, to correct systemic complications composed by the loss of nephrons in progress, to reduce of protein catabolism to the lowest level, to relieve or prevent the cardio‐ vascular, cerebrovascular, peripheral vascular diseases formation, to prevent increasing fluid and electrolyte disorders, to reduce uremic symptoms such as itching, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and to ensure optimum nutrition. In addition, medical nutrition helps to avoid highpotassium and sodium from the diet, to prevent pulmonary edema, hypertension and heart failure, to prevent renal osteodystrophy keeping the consumption of calcium and phosphorus under control, to prevent protein energy malnutrition with saving patients' food consumption and detecting nutritional status with methods such anthropometric measurements, laboratory findings, subjective global assessment (SGA) ( Cianciaruso 1995, Kopple 2004, Mahan 2012). Negative changes (hyperkalemia, hiperfosfotemi, peripheral and pulmonary edema) in fluidelectrolyte balance occur in patients who do not comply to the diet.