What is dialysis dementia?
Dialysis dementia refers to reported cases in the 1980s of a rare but serious syndrome of irreversible progressive dementia with apraxias, dysarthria, hyperreflexia, myoclonus, and multifocal seizures.
Clusters of patients with dementia presented from dialysis centers that used water contaminated with aluminum, and therefore the presence of aluminum in the dialysate was thought to be the primary agent causing CNS toxicity.
Removal of aluminum with ion exchange resins prior to dialysis has significantly reduced the problem.
