Subacute Aluminum Intoxication in Hemodialysis Patients

ISBN-13: 9783639093087 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 232 str.

Kenrick Berend

Opis

In 1996, in Curacao, a small island in the Netherlands Antilles, ten patients of a hemodialysis center died because of an outbreak of subacute aluminum intoxication. Two aspects were responsible for this intoxication. First, no water purification system was used in the dialysis center. In hemodialysis treatment many liters water are used. The water has to be pure because substances dissolved in the water can enter the blood compartiment of the patients. Because very pure distilled seawater was used for the distribution of drinking water in those island it was common practice not to use extended water purification systems. Second, a new drinking water pipe with an inner cement coating was installed. Cement contains aluminum. Due to the purity of the drinking water, aluminum leached from this cement layer into the water used for hemodialysis treatment. This book discusses aspects of drinking water production and distribution, the symptoms of subacute aluminum intoxication, the post-mortem toxicological findings, the treatment of aluminum intoxication and the judicial implications of the tragic incident.

O autorze

Kenrick Berend, was born 21-3-1955 on Curaçao. He did his
Medical graduation and the internal medicine specialization at
the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands in 1983. He is the
Head of the Internal medicine department St. Elisabeth Hospital
and works in the dialysis department.