Nursing interventions for the most frequent complications during hemodialysis procedure: literature review

Hemodialysis procedure has potential complications and nurses must be able to intervent on them. Considering this context, this article aims to describe the most frequent hemodialysis-related complications as well as nursing-related interventions. This bibliographic review consists in LILACS, BDENF and MEDLINE search using pertinent descriptors. Results demonstrated that major complications are: hypotension, hypertension, cramps, nausea and vomiting, headache, chest and low back pain, scratching, fever and shriving. For these complications there are specific nursing interventions that can be delivered. It was concluded that nurse's role is essential for monitoring, identification, and intervention in such complications and that this role also is a differential to obtain quality in hemodialysis procedure. However, there is a need to perform more research in nursing area to better define the nurse's role.