November 27, 2002 - A full-text article in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that diuretics, routinely prescribed to boost the urine output of those suffering kidney failure, may instead be harmful to these patients. The study of 552 kidney patients in four California hospitals conducted between 1989 and 1995 found that patients given diuretics had a sharply higher risk of death or of never recovering kidney function. Summary from Reuters/Yahoo. (link is no longer available)

JAMA is making the entire text of the study available at no charge:

"Diuretics, Mortality, and Nonrecovery of Renal Function in Acute Renal Failure" - abstract from JAMA

Several other summaries on this study are available:

• "Diuretic treatment for kidney failure panned" - Los Angeles Times via Houston Chronicle (link is no longer available)
  
  
• "Diuretics a risk for kidney patients" - MSNBC
  

[This message has been edited by Gary Peterson (edited 01-17-2003).]