Some Covid patients may also face renal failure due to complications
Amrita Hospital, Kochi recently organised a renal transplant meet Punarjani ahead of World Kidney Day. The hospital was celebrating the milestone of achieving 750 successful kidney transplant surgeries since its inception in 2002. Kidney patients are much more vulnerable to the ongoing pandemic, with those having pre-existing kidney disease developing serious complications due to Coronavirus. Morbidity and mortality due to covid are much higher in chronic kidney disease patients, especially those undergoing dialysis treatment.
According to Dr Rajesh Nair, Professor and Head, Dept of Nephrology and Renal Transplants, Amrita Hospital, Kochi, covid can damage the kidneys directly or cause injuries indirectly to them due to severe inflammation called cytokine storm, or excessive blood clotting. About 20 per cent of hospitalised COVID-19 patients develop acute kidney injury due to the infection. Many of them experience renal shutdown. Some patients may need temporary hemodialysis treatment, mostly those who develop complications of covid pneumonia and require ventilator support.
Dr Nair added, “We have till now seen hundreds of chronic kidney disease patients developing serious complications due to COVID-19. Kidney transplant recipients are also much more prone to covid as they are on immunosuppressants. Fortunately, most of the kidney transplant recipients at Amrita Hospital recovered with temporary reduction of immunosuppressive medications, anti-viral treatment and meticulous supportive care.”
Dr Nair further mentioned, “During the last one year, kidney disease patients have been reluctant to visit hospitals due to fear of covid. Most of our out-patients at Amrita hospital during the initial pandemic period were managed with online teleconsultations. However, those needing hospitalisation had a difficult time due to manpower challenges, delays due to testing and categorisation into covid or non-covid patient care, and increased demand for ICU care, ventilators and dialysis, leading to shortages.”
Dr Nair said, “Kidney patients on long-term dialysis who developed covid needed hospital stays for the continuation of their dialysis, and dedicated areas had to be provided for this. There was higher mortality too among kidney patients infected with covid. Due to all this, the overall burden of kidney patients on the healthcare system was enormous during the pandemic. We hope that as covid vaccination progresses in the community, the number of complicated cases of kidney patients will drastically come down.”
