Correcting Acidosis during Hemodialysis: Current Limitations and a Potential Solution

The deleterious catabolic and pro-inflammatory effects of acidosis in hemodialysis (HD) patients and the importance of its correction for limiting mineral bone disease (MBD) are well known. Although oral base therapy could be a solution for correcting acidosis in HD patients, it increases their already enormous medication load and sodium intake; this approach is not used commonly. Therefore, we need to rely more on correcting acidosis during the HD procedure, which is difficult to achieve, in part, because HD is an intermittent therapy. The currently used fixed dialysate bicarbonate concentrations are associated with pre-HD acidosis and intra-dialytic alkalosis. We suggest that a decreasing dialysate bicarbonate concentration from an initially high concentration be considered as a means of correcting acidosis with limited intra-dialytic alkalosis. Some evidence, as well as theoretical considerations, supports such an approach.