Intraoperative hyperkalemia and cardiac arrests during renal transplantation in an insulin-dependent diabetic patient

Abstract

Renal potassium excretion and cellular potassium uptake play vital roles in the body's defense against hyperkalemia. Both mechanisms for regulating serum potassium are impaired in the diabetic patient who has chronic renal failure. Therefore, such patients may show dramatic elevations in serum potassium. An insulin-dependent diabetic patient in chronic renal failure, while undergoing two separate procedures for renal transplantation, 18 months apart, had cardiac arrests secondary to hyperkalemia.