Nutritional approach to kidney post-transplantation hypophosphatemia: a pilot study

Abstract

Renal transplantation is the gold standard for the treatment of ESRD patients. During the early-stage post-transplantation, metabolic and electrolytic alterations may develop, including hypophosphatemia and the treatment includes a diet rich in phosphorus, sometimes with the addition of oral or intravenous phosphorus supplement. Forty-four kidney transplanted patients with hypophosphatemia were evaluated retrospectively. They were divided into two groups based on whether patients received (group A, 14 patients) or not (group B, 30 patients) dietary prescription for hypophosphatemia. Group A was further divided into two subgroups: group A1 (8 patients), with baseline phosphatemia ≥0.5 mmol/L, treated only with a diet rich in animal phosphorus, and group A2 (6 patients), with baseline phosphatemia ≤0.5 mmol/L, who received a potassium phosphate supplement in addition to the same dietary prescription. Three months after transplantation, group A had a greater increase of phosphatemia compared with group B (group A: 0.58 ± 0.12 vs 0.93 ± 0.22 mmol/L; group B: 0.59 ± 0.11 to 0.8 ± 0.13 mmol/L). Furthermore, in group A2 the increase of phosphatemia was lower than in group A1.

In conclusion, dietary approach supported by dietary counseling was effective in treating post kidney transplantation hypophosphatemia. The results of this pilot study might represent a useful working hypothesis for studies with a larger cohort of enrolled patients in order to confirm for these patients the efficacy of the nutritional approach and of the dietary counseling to post renal transplantation hypophosphatemia.