Extracorporeal Ultrafiltrationof Ascites (EUA) - a New Method in the Treatment of Refractory Ascites

Overview

Refractory ascites is encountered most frequently in cirrhosis of the liver, nephrotic syndromeetc. One of the possible ways of treatment is extracorporeal ultrafiltration of ascites (EUA), bya technique available at haemodialyzation centres. In this method the ascitic fluid is concen-trated by filtration and the „concentrate“ is returned into the patient’s abdominal cavity. Theauthors used the single-needle technique described by Japanese authors. They repeated theprocedure four times and obtained a total of 12.3 l filtrate which did not contain any proteinbecause that was returned to the patient. The authors sum up that this method may be valuablein refractory ascites because it is simple, the tolerance and effectiveness is satisfactory.

Key words:
extracorporeal ultrafiltration of ascites - haemodialysis - refractory ascites.