On Dialysis For Kidney Failure. Feeling Weak And Unable To Eat. How To Reduce Creatinine Level?

Posted on Fri, 22 Mar 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 Answered on

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My Father is suffering from kidney failure before a year and is doing dialysis for a year.His creatinine levels was 6 when he started but now it is 14 .He is feeling very weak and unable to eat any food.He is not feeling hungry .Please let us know if creatinine levels can be reduced if so the method to reduced the same .

Answered by Dr. Ravi Bansal (10 hours later)

Hi XXXXXXX

Thanks for your query.

Serum creatinine is a waste product produced in body which kidney is supposed to through out of the body. If kidney does not work then you need either an artificial kidney ( Dialysis) or kidney transplant.

If your dad is already on dialysis then only way to explain high creatinine is that the DOSE of Dialysis is not enough.

I would recommend:

1. Take daily dialysis for 3 days continuously.

2. Once creatinine comes down take minimum of 3 dialysis per week for minimum of 4 hrs each

3. See if the machine blood flow setting is more than 300 ml/mt or not.

I think this should solve the problem. As far as appetite is concerned, though serum creatinine has a major role in improving that but there are lot of other medical factors which need to be addressed . This can be done by your nephrologist once creatinine is around 7 to 8 mg/dl

Hope this helps.

Any further queries please write in.

Regards,

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T

Follow up: Dr. Ravi Bansal (3 hours later)

so if dialysis is being done for three days continously there is higher chances of reducing creatinine right.

Then after this what are the steps to be taken to maintain creatinine at the current levels

Answered by Dr. Ravi Bansal (32 minutes later)

Hi XXXXXXX you need to understand human body generates a fixed amount of creatinine every day. 15 to 20 mg/kg body weight. Therefore, if the removal is faster than production the level will come down. If removal is same as production then level will remain same.

So if you do three HD on three consecutive days levels will come down. If you decrease frequency to 3/week then the level should remain same. If you decrease frequency further, the level will go up.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E