Anuria

[am0r803]

Ok, so my patient is in ESRD and recently stopped producing urine all together - anuric, anuresis....

I'm only asking this question because I have stupidly left my medical dictionary book in school and am off for the next two weeks - STUPID STUPID STUPID me! But anyway - my question is, I understand she is in end stage renal disease so obviously her kidneys are not functioning. She has been going for hemodialysis for the past year... what happens to the urine?? Maybe that sounds like a stupid question - but I'm curious, any fluids she takes in or any food she eats, how is this excreted now?

Am i making sense in my question?

I guess I'm just not really familiar in the specifics of End stage Renal disease nor am I familiar with anuria because this is the first patient I've had with either. If any of you can reference a site to look at or some other information it would be great. I've been searching online and can't seem to find anything really useful except the definition of both.

THANKS!

[am0r803]

Got it! No worries about being questioned. Thanks for any insight you have given me!

Like I said, this is all new to me so anything anyone can tell me is wonderful. One more thing while I'm at it (on my two week vacation and being a true nursing student DOING SCHOOL WORK!)

Didn't mention this before - but she was recently diagnosed with cervical cancer and is being treated palliatively (correct spelling?) with radiation.

Now forgive me for not knowing this - but how is radiation good with palliative care?? Palliative care is supposed to keep the patient comfortable correct? Doesn't radiation do the opposite for a patient as far as causing side effects? I asked my professor and she told me to use my head for this one soooo what I have come up with is....

She has cervical cancer and they are using radiation to shrink the mass because the location of it and size of it may cause pain??

Ah I dunno - perhaps I should go to sleep and try again tomorrow!

[talaxandra]

Your head's working well! Some masses respond well to radiotherapy, reducing in size and therefore decreasing discomfort. Palliative radiotherapy is usually given at a lower dosage and/or less often than regular radiotherapy, to reduce side-effects. If she has inoperable cancer maybe the dialysis is also being used as a comfort measure, rather than as a long-term treatment, which could explain why comfort (ie treating thirst) is prioritised over a fluid restriction.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

for information about cancers and the treatments related to the various types, go to

• http://www.cancer.gov/ - national cancer institute

you can search for cancer by the organ involved and can get information for either consumer or health professional.