Anitha Vijayan, MD, FASN, Professor of Medicine, Nephrology, was the invited Jerry Jackson Lecturer at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, where she discussed “Hybrid Renal Replacement Therapy Modalities in the Treatment of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI).”
Vijayan, Medical Director of Acute Dialysis Services, oversees the renal replacement therapy program in the intensive care units at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Approximately 20 percent of ICU patients can develop AKI, with a large percentage of them subsequently requiring some form of renal replacement therapy. Renal replacement modalities available at BJH include continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), intermittent hemodialysis (IHD), prolonged intermittent renal replacement therapy (PIRRT) and peritoneal dialysis (PD).
Vijayan found that critically ill patients with AKI, initially started on CRRT, can successfully transition to nocturnal PIRRT (see review in Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, 2016, by Fahad Edrees, Tingting Li and Anitha Vijayan).
“Nocturnal PIRRT alleviates patients’ anxiety and allows them to get physical therapy and other procedures done during the day,” says Vijayan.
Dr. Jerry Jackson is an alumnus of the UAB nephrology fellowship program and has generously provided support each year for a visiting professor that is selected by UAB’s nephrology fellows.
On Twitter, follow Anitha Vijayan @VijayanMD, Tingting Li @Ting2li, and keep updated with WashU Division of Nephrology @WUNephrology.