Forced versus minimal intravenous hydration in the management of acute renal colic: a randomized trial. Randomized prospective study of a nonthiazide diuretic, indapamide, in preventing calcium stone recurrences. Acute ureteral colic and fluid intake. Protocol-guided diuretic management: comparison of furosemide by continuous infusion and intermittent bolus. Urinary volume, water and recurrences in idiopathic calcium nephrolithiasis: a 5-year randomized prospective study. Concomitant treatment with urodilatin (ularitide) does not improve renal function in patients with acute renal failure after major abdominal surgery--a randomized controlled trial. Furosemide in hyaline membrane disease. Comparative study of the efficacy of dipyrone, diclofenac sodium and pethidine in acute renal colic. Collaborative Group of the Spanish Society of Clinical Pharmacology. Intramuscular diclofenac sodium versus intravenous Baralgin in the treatment of renal colic.
The management of acute renal colic is a problem commonly encountered by both urologists and emergency medicine physicians. The classic approach to managing uncomplicated acute renal colic involves hydration, along with imaging and pain control. Previous studies have suggested that hydration has a significant impact on patient comfort, as well as spontaneous stone passage. This study evaluated the effects of maintenance v forced hydration and its effect on the pain experienced from renal colic.
                Forty male and 18 female patients with a mean age of 41 years suspected to have acute renal colic were identified in the emergency department. After screening and informed consent, the patients were enrolled in the study, and 43 patients were eventually available for analysis. Patients received intravenous (IV) analgesia, imaging with a noncontrast CT scan of abdomen and pelvis, and assignment to either forced IV hydration with 2 L of normal saline over 2 hours (N = 20) or minimal IV hydration at 20 mL of normal saline per hour (N = 23). A visual analog pain scale was completed hourly for a total of 4 hours. Demographic information, laboratory and imaging results, narcotic use in morphine equivalents (ME), and pain scores were recorded and compared. Spontaneous stone passage rates were also calculated by careful patient follow-up. Results were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05.
                Stone size was equivalent in the two treatment groups (p > 0.05). There was no difference in the narcotic requirement in ME (p = 0.644) between the two groups. Similarly, there was no difference in hourly pain score or stone-passage rates between the groups (p > 0.05).
                Treatment of uncomplicated renal colic has traditionally included vigorous intravenous hydration, as well as medications for the control of pain and nausea. Our data suggest that maintenance intravenous fluids are as efficacious as forced hydration with regard to patient pain perception and narcotic use. Moreover, it appears the state of hydration has little impact on stone passage. We examined the biochemical changes and the efficacy of indapamide in the prevention of calcium stone recurrences. Seventy-five patients with calcium nephrolithiasis and hypercalciuria were randomly assigned to three different therapies: diet and fluid (group A), diet and fluid plus indapamide 2.5 mg/day (group B), and diet and fluid plus indapamide 2.5 mg/day plus allopurinol 300 mg/day (group C). Before treatment and after 6, 12, 24, and 36 months of therapy, we evaluated blood pressure, serum and urine risk parameters (including relative supersaturations of calcium oxalate, calcium phosphate and uric acid), stone rate, and the proportion of calculi-free patients. During the 3 years of treatment, urinary calcium greatly decreased in groups B and C, dropping to 50% of the pretreatment values; urinary oxalate also significantly declined in group B (-24%) and group C (-27%). Relative supersaturations of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate decreased to the same extent in groups B and C (about one-half of the pretreatment value), and relative supersaturation of uric acid was particularly reduced in group C (-65% of the pretreatment value). The stone rate improved in all three groups (p < 0.005), but using actuarial analysis in the evaluation of calculi-free patients, indapamide, and indapamide plus allopurinol groups were found to have a significantly more favorable effect than diet and fluid treatment (p < 0.02), without any difference between the two drug groups. Because indapamide has fewer side effects than thiazide diuretics, we conclude that indapamide could be an interesting alternative to thiazides in the prevention of calcium stones in hypercalciuric patients. In the treatment of acute ureteral colic opinions differ regarding the consequences of fluid intake. This study was undertaken to evaluate a possible relationship between fluid load and the pain. One group of patients received 3 liters of fluid intravenously, while in another group all fluids were withheld. No intergroup differences as regards pain was found after 6 hours of observation. To evaluate the safety and relative effectiveness of two diuretic protocols in the intensive care unit (ICU).
                Prospective, randomized comparative study.
                Thirty-three cardiac and medical ICU patients with pulmonary edema or fluid overload for which aggressive diuresis was intended.
                Enrolled patients were randomized to fluid management strategies combining fluid restriction and individually adjusted diuretic therapy by either continuous or bolus infusions of furosemide, titrated to achieve negative hourly fluid balance.
                Cumulative intake minus output (primary endpoint); change in serum creatinine, and length of ICU and hospital stay (secondary endpoints). Diuresis by either protocol was feasible, safe, and effective. The main outcome measures were not significantly different for either group managed with a standardized protocol.
                Protocol-guided diuretic management, with individualized titration of dosage to defined physiologic endpoints can be readily and safely implemented in the ICU. Both continuous and bolus diuretic regimens appear equally effective in achieving negative fluid balance. Larger studies with a randomized control arm are needed before these protocols can be recommended as routine practice. We define the role of urine volume as a stone risk factor in idiopathic calcium stone disease and test the actual preventive effectiveness of a high water intake.
                We studied 101 controls and 199 patients from the first idiopathic calcium stone episode. After a baseline study period the stone formers were divided by randomization into 2 groups (1 and 2) and they were followed prospectively for 5 years. Followup in group 1 only involved a high intake of water without any dietetic change, while followup in group 2 did not involve any treatment. Each year clinical, laboratory and radiological evaluation was obtained to determine urinary stone risk profile (including relative supersaturations of calcium oxalate, brushite and uric acid by Equil 2), recurrence rate and mean time to relapse.
                The original urine volume was lower in male and female stone formers compared to controls (men with calcium oxalate stones 1,057 +/- 238 ml./24 hours versus normal men 1,401 +/- 562 ml./24 hours, p < 0.0001 and women calcium oxalate stones 990 +/- 230 ml./24 hours versus normal women 1,239 +/- 440 ml./24 hours, p < 0.001). During followup recurrences were noted within 5 years in 12 of 99 group 1 patients and in 27 of 100 group 2 patients (p = 0.008). The average interval for recurrences was 38.7 +/- 13.2 months in group 1 and 25.1 +/- 16.4 months in group 2 (p = 0.016). The relative supersaturations for calcium oxalate, brushite and uric acid were much greater in baseline urine of the stone patients in both groups compared to controls. During followup, baseline values decreased sharply only in group 1. Finally the baseline urine in patients with recurrences was characterized by a higher calcium excretion compared to urine of the patients without recurrences in both groups.
                We conclude that urine volume is a real stone risk factor in nephrolithiasis and that a large intake of water is the initial therapy for prevention of stone recurrences. In cases of hypercalciuria it is suitable to prescribe adjuvant specific diets or drug therapy. Acute renal failure after major abdominal surgery is a severe complication in critically ill patients in intensive care units (ICU). The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of urodilatin on the peak value and course of serum creatinine in patients with acute renal insufficiency after major abdominal surgery and the necessity of apparatus-based renal replacement treatment. Furthermore, the incidence and nature of adverse events under urodilatin was documented. In a prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study, 12 critically ill patients after major abdominal surgery with acute renal failure in an intensive care unit (ICU) received 20 ng/kg b.w./min urodilatin (ularitide, INN) or placebo in addition to the standard diuretic therapy or low-dose dopamine (2.5 micrograms/kg b.w./min) and furosemide (1000 mg/24 hr) for a minimum of 96 hours. All patients received mechanical ventilation. Both groups had similar serum creatinine values on the day before the onset of urodilatin/placebo infusion (2.80 +/- 0.24 mg/dl, 2.93 +/- 0.48 mg/dl). Peak serum creatinine was lower in the urodilatin group (4.65 +/- 0.57 mg/dl) compared to vehicle treatment (5.78 +/- 1.58 mg/dl), although the difference did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.148). The total number of hemodialyses due to oligo-/anuria and/or hyperkalemia was the same in both groups during the study. In 4 patients of the placebo group, diuresis was reduced to anuria, whereas only 1 of the patients treated with urodilatin became anuric. No hemodynamic side effects or adverse events due to urodilatin were observed. This clinical study under double blind conditions revealed that the addition of urodilatin to the standard diuretic therapy of low-dose dopamine and furosemide failed to improve renal function in patients with established acute renal failure and that urodilatin did not eliminate the need for apparatus-based renal replacement treatment. In a randomized clinical trial designed to evaluate the effect of diuresis on infants with hyaline membrane disease, seven infants were treated with furosemide (2 mg/kg intravenously) and five received 5% dextrose water in 0.225% sodium chloride (control group). Arterial blood gas analyses performed before and during the six hours after treatment showed no significant difference between control and treated infants. Urine output and urine sodium and calcium loss were significantly increased (P less than .05) in the infants receiving furosemide. The diuresis seemed to have no effect on left atrial size determined echocardiographically, whereas measurements of dynamic skinfold thickness suggested mobilization of subcutaneous water. One infant became seriously dehydrated and hypotensive secondary to a massive diuresis. We concluded that furosemide had a potent diuretic effect in infants with hyaline membrane disease but does not improve cardiorespiratory function acutely. This may be because of failure to mobilize pulmonary interstitial fluid in the time period tested. It may also be possible that the presence of pulmonary interstitial fluid does not play an important role in the impairment of gas exchange in the acute stage of hyaline membrane disease. A randomized, double-blind, multicentre clinical trial was designed to compared the analgesic efficacy of i.m. dipyrone 1 and 2 g, i.m. diclofenac sodium and i.m. pethidine in acute renal colic. The study was carried out in 451 patients in 13 Spanish hospitals. Ureteric colic was diagnosed by the clinical features, urinalysis, or when the presence of a ureteric calculus was confirmed. The severity of pain was assessed by the physicians and by patients using visual analogue scales. The main parameter of drug efficacy was the need for rescue treatment-pethidine 100 mg i.m. 30 min after the experimental treatment. Rescue treatment was required in 93 patients: they represented 24.1% of the group given dipyrone 1 g; 22.3% of those on dipyrone 2 g; 16.4% of those given diclofenac sodium; and 19.5% of those on pethidine. The differences between the groups were not significant. In the remaining 358 patients, no difference between treatments was observed. The results suggest that in acute renal colic the use of dipyrone 2 g is unjustified as dipyrone 1 g is equally effective. Diclofenac sodium is a valid alternative, which shows similar analgesic efficacy. A comparative, randomized, double-blind study of diclofenac sodium 75 mg im versus Baralgin (a combination drug composed of dipyrone and two spasmolytics) 5 mL iv was performed on 57 patients with renal colic. Both groups were comparable as to age, sex, pain evolution time before treatment, and no treatment for renal colic in the six hours preceding trial drug administration. No significant differences were found between the two groups with respect to the evolution of pain after the first dose or in the frequency of administration of a second dose. Tolerability was good in both groups, but sweating and pain throughout the vein were observed in one patient in the Baralgin group. We concluded that diclofenac sodium constitutes an excellent alternative to pyrazolone analgesics, with the advantages of being monotherapy and having good tolerability, when used as intramuscular injection in ambulatory patients.
We found no reliable evidence in the literature to support the use of diuretics and high volume fluid therapy for people with acute ureteric colic. However, given the potential positive therapeutic impact of fluids and diuretics to facilitate stone passage, the capacity of these interventions warrants further investigation to determine safety and efficacy profiles.