One of our centers has experienced several dialyzers with immediate clotting of the blood compartment upon treatment initiation. The header of the dialyzers had a crystalization formed on them.

It was further discovered that other "recircing" dialyzers had a crystalization forming on the headers as well.

We removed the dialyzers and used new ones. The remainder of the day was without incident. It has been 4 days past the initial incident and has not reappeared since.

I am sending the dialyzers to a lab to rule out what the crystalization is (checking for residual bicarb, formaldehyde, bleach, and calcium buildup).

Any ideas on what happened to cause this?

What dialyzers where you using? I would assume your using the new Gambro Dialyzers??

All of the dialyzers in question were F80's

quote:

Originally posted by Tech Tim:
What dialyzers where you using? I would assume your using the new Gambro Dialyzers??

one of the blessings of reuse

I have seen white, crystal-like precipitate form inside a dialyzer only once.

The incident was many years ago, but the resulting investigation determined that "over mixed" bicarbonate concentrate (bicarb that was left agitating in the mixing tank for an extended period of time) altered the pH of the dialysate which resulted in the precipitate forming.

The dialyzer immediately clotted off and the treatment was stopped. The conductivity/pH check prior to treatment initiation was not completed which would have revealed a pH that was out of range.

Good luck with your investigation.