Acute Effects of Nutrition Supplementation on Treatment Efficiency and Hemodynamics During Dialysis

The consumption of food or nutritional supplements during hemodialysis treatment has been shown to improve nutritional status, improve quality of life, and reduce mortality.

Despite these observations, allowing patients to eat food during hemodialysis treatment is sometimes restricted in the United States. The reasons for this restrictive policy are multi-factorial, but include concerns related to drops in blood pressure BP or a reduced efficiency of solute removal following eating during HD treatment. An alternative to eating solid food is to provide patients with liquid nutritional supplements. Clinics in the US are more likely to allow the consumption of liquid nutritional supplements, however, little is known about the effect that liquid supplements have on blood pressure or treatment efficiency. Therefore, the investigators plan to examine the effect of nutritional supplementation during hemodialysis treatment on hemodynamics and treatment efficiency in a crossover design.

Inclusion criteria

• Receiving hemodialysis treatment three times per week, on hemodialysis for greater than three months, receive medical clearance from a Nephrologists

Exclusion criteria

• Milk or soy allergy, more than 4 hypotensive events requiring intervention in the last two weeks, hospitalized due to hypotension in the previous week