Colonic Disease in Patients Receiving Hemodialysis

It is becoming increasingly apparent that patients with chronic renal failure are at increased risk for developing a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) tract complications. Initially, it seemed that such complications were predominantly confined to those patients who underwent renal transplantation. More recently, patients receiving longterm hemodialysis have been found to have numerous GI tract disorders and, in particular, disorders of the large intestine, including diverticulosis and diverticulitis,¹ spontaneous colonic perforation,² ischemic colitis,³ and discrete colonic ulceration.⁴

See also p 303.  The article by Adams et al entitled "Lower Gastrointestinal Tract Dysfunction in Patients Receiving Long-term Hemodialysis" in this issue of the Archives (p 303) describes a group of patients receiving long-term hemodialysis with yet another such disorder—colonic pseudoobstruction. Juxtaposed against a similar group of patients receiving hemodialysis in whom colonic perforation had developed, both as a result of mechanical factors and spontaneously, the clinical importance of