The Effect of Low-Flux and High-Flux Filters on Adequacy and Complications during Hemodialysis of Patients

In case of inadequacy, hemodialysis, as one of the most common treatments for chronic renal failure, increases the blood toxins, complications, hospital stay, costs, and death. High-Flux filters can be effective in increasing hemodialysis adequacy if the patients tolerate and do not display complications. Therefore, this article aimed to study the efficiency of these dialyzers in increasing the dialysis adequacy compared with the complications and tolerance of hemodialysis patients. This is a single-group quasi-experimental study during which all 22 patients underwent hemodialysis three times a week for four hours for six months. They consented to participate in the study. They underwent dialysis for 4 sessions with Low-Flux filter and then 4 sessions with High-Flux filters. In each session, the patients were investigated by a checklist during the hemodialysis. In the fourth session, dialysis adequacy was measured for each patient. The mean score of dialysis adequacy in Low-Flux stage was 0.83±0.48. It was 1.02±0.064 in High-Flux stage, though. According to the Paired Sample Test, the difference was significant (p=0.006). According to the McNamara's test, the incidence of nausea and vomiting, headache, muscle cramps, etc. was not significant between Low-Flux and High-Flux modes (P>0.05). Systolic blood pressure changes were increasing in both mentioned modes which was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: In addition to increasing the dialysis adequacy, using High-Flux filter is a better choice than Low-Flux filter due to no complications for hemodialysis patients.