Peritoneal dialysis can alleviate the clinical course of hungry bone syndrome after parathyroidectomy in dialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism.

PURPOSE: It is unclear whether clinical courses of hungry bone syndrome (HBS) after parathyroidectomy (PTX) in peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD) patients are different. The present study aimed to investigate the possible differences of postoperative hypocalcemia and hyperkalemia between PD and HD patients.

METHODS: We performed retrospectively 29 PD patients as the PD group and 169 HD patients as the HD group undergoing successful total PTX with autotransplantation. Calcium supplement after surgery was recorded. Higher levels of serum potassium during and immediately after surgery were recorded as K+ d0 . K+ d3 was recorded as peak pre-dialysis serum potassium level 3 days post-surgery.

RESULTS: There were 157 (92.90%) patients in HD group and 22 (75.86%) patients in PD group suffered from HBS after surgery, with significant difference between the groups (P = 0.004). Patients in PD group had significantly shorter intravenous calcium supplement duration (P = 0.037) and significantly smaller intravenous calcium supplement dosage (P = 0.042) and total calcium supplement dosage during hospitalization (P = 0.012) than patients in HD group. The levels of serum K+ d0 (P < 0.001) and K+ d3 (P < 0.001) were both significantly lower in PD group than those in HD group. Peritoneal dialysis was one of the independent influencing factors with negative correlation for calcium supplement, serum K+ d0 and serum K+ d3 .

CONCLUSIONS: Compared with HD patients, the clinical course of HBS after PTX in PD patients was alleviated. Efforts should be devoted to individual perioperative management for PD patients undergoing PTX.