| [ Summary ] |
Chronic dialysis patients are often treated with many kinds of medications, and are a high risk group for gastrointestinal disorders. NSAIDs sometimes cause gastrointestinal bleeding, due to ulcer formation. Although aspirin is frequently prescribed, adverse effects tend to be overlooked because of the low dosage. In our hospital, 57.9 % of patients treated with aspirin had gastrointestinal ulcers. Chronic hemodialysis patients are at high risk for gastrointestinal bleeding because of the intermittent anticoagulant therapy received during dialysis sessions. Simple diarrhea and constipation are often seen in dialysis patients as a result of drug induced gastrointestinal complications. However, since, in most cases, it is difficult to suspend these causal medications, for a variety of reasons, symptomatic treatment is widely used. In cases with critical conditions, such as pseudomembranous enterocolitis and hemorrhagic colitis, immediate diagnosis and appropriate treatment, including the withdrawal of the causal drugs, is required. Moreover, for older patients, careful attention should be paid to the non-pharmacological side effects associated with prescription, drugs such as mis-swallowing of PTP sheet-coated pills. |