How to deal with fever in dialysis patients

If a dialysis patient develops a fever, it is important to go to the hospital for appropriate tests to find the cause. Since dialysis patients have a lower immune function, it is important to analyze whether the fever is related to dialysis at this time. If the fever is between dialysis sessions, it is often caused by pathogenic infections, such as bacterial or viral infections. In this case, the patient should be given routine blood tests and chest radiographs to check for infections, and antibiotics or antiviral treatment can be administered if there is an infection. If the patient develops fever during dialysis, this requires vigilance against dialysis-related fever, such as the patient’s allergy to dialysis or catheter-related infection, which requires retention of intracatheter blood culture and peripheral blood culture, in addition to attention to treatment such as replacement of the patient’s dialyzer. In conclusion, it is important to see a specialist for treatment of fever once it occurs.