Diálisis con albúmina MARS (Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System) como puente para el trasplante hepático en insuficiencia hepática fulminante: presentación de 3 casos / Albumin dialysis MARS (Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System) in acute liver failure, before liver transplantation: report of three cases

The most successful therapy for acute liver failure is liver transplantation. However, due to the low number of donors, organ support therapies need to be used as a bridge to liver transplantation. Molecular Adsorbents Recirculating System (MARS) is a dialysis treatment that uses a recirculating dialysate containing albumin. This allows the removal of both hydrosoluble and albumin-related substances. This system improves hepatic encephalopathy, renal dysfunction and some clinical parameters in acute liver failure, but there is no clear decrease in mortality. We report three women aged 23, 21 and 61 years, that were subjected to liver transplantation, in whom this therapy was successfully used.

Farmacocinética y aclaramiento de ciprofloxacina y amikacina en hemodiálisis continua / Pharmacokinetics and clearence of ciprofloxacin and amikacin during continuous hemodialysis

We studied the pharmacokinetics and clearence of a 200 mg ciprofloxacin and a 500 mg amikacin intravenous dose during 5 continuous hemodialysis procedures in 5 patients with acute oliguric renal failure. Hourly blood and ultrafiltrate drug concentrations were measured during 8 hours. Dialysate flux (Qd) was 16.6 ml/min during the first hours and 33.2 ml/min thereafter. For each Qd, total ciprofloxacin clearence was 1.13ñ0.99 and 2.8ñ1.71 ml/min (p<0.001), diffusive clearence was 0.96ñ0.87 and 2.47ñ1.56 ml/min (p<0.005) and convective clearence was 0.16ñ0.17 and 0.33ñ0.2 ml/min (p<0.05). Likewise, total amikacin clearence was 3.47ñ1.31 and 4.18ñ0.53 ml/min (p<0.001), diffusive clearence was 2.97ñ1.24 and 3.86ñ0.52 ml/min and convective clearence was 0.50ñ0.47 and 0.32ñ0.29 ml/min (p=NS). Protein binding was 84 percent for ciprofloxacin and 77 percent for amikacin. It is concluded that during continuous hemodialysis with cuprofan membrane, the main transport mechanism of ciprofloxacin and amikacin is diffusive. Very low amounts of ciprofloxacin are depurated by the dialyser. Likewise, the shortening of amikacin half life suggest the presence of other elimination pathway and the need to use suplementary doses every 24 hours