The recent earthquakes also affected thousands of patients facing kidney failure living in the southeastern region of Türkiye. Nearly 1,000 to 8,000 patients in the hard-hit 11 provinces who needed dialysis three days a week were transferred to the surrounding provinces. Their treatment continues without interruption, two health officials stated Tuesday.
While thousands of citizens have been injured after the Feb. 6 earthquakes, many fell into acute kidney failure due to crush syndrome and had to undergo temporary dialysis treatment.
It is not yet known how many cases of acute kidney failure could develop due to crush syndrome and require dialysis treatment. Some may only need treatment for a few weeks, others may become chronic patients.
Timur Erk, president of the Turkish Kidney Foundation (TBV), said that they are mobilizing to establish a dialysis center with 10 units in the region under the coordination of the Ministry of Health. On the other hand, Dr. Mehmet Şükrü Sever, a member of the Board of Directors and Nephrology Specialists, emphasized that children recover more quickly than adults in terms of crush syndrome; therefore, they experience fewer cases of kidney failure.
After the earthquakes that caused significant infrastructural damage across 11 provinces, dialysis centers in the region were also damaged. Some earthquake victims with chronic kidney failure have to undergo dialysis at least three days a week and had to be transferred to the surrounding provinces because the dialysis centers were also destroyed or rendered out of service.
Dozens of dialysis centers were quickly reactivated, and the uninterrupted continuation of the treatments was ensured, the TBV officials noted.
Since the first day of the earthquake, the Ministry of Health and the TBV have quickly coordinated and organized the treatment of earthquake-affected dialysis patients.
Erk and Sever, who made remarks about the condition of dialysis centers in the quake-hit zone, in their interview with Demirören News Agency (DHA) explained the latest situation of the dialysis patients affected by the earthquake in the region, how thousands of patients were coordinated due to the destroyed dialysis centers, and provided information on the new dialysis patients with crush syndrome added to existing patients lists.
The TBV donated a temporary catheter and 2,000 dialysis kits for the treatment of patients with crush syndrome after the earthquake, they stated.
Erk noted that around 8,000 dialysis patients live in the region, and 7,000 can still continue their treatment in their own centers.
"However, around 1,000 patients were transferred to the surrounding provinces. For example, while there were 778 patients on dialysis in Diyarbakır, this number increased to 1,250 after the earthquake; while there were 1,700 patients in Adana, it increased to 2,000. The most important part here, as we always said, is the condition of patients with crush syndrome. Acute kidney failure developed in 1,200 of the 1,600 patients," he said.
Erk, who also stated that as the TBV they support approximately 500 patients, reiterated that three of their staff members worked day and night in the coordination center and helped patients in the regional transportation and to continue dialysis.
However, noting that special diet and dietician support are required for the patients still on dialysis, he also said that they applied to the Ministry of Health to create more opportunities for providing treatments in the quake-hit region. ''We have mobilized to establish a dialysis center with ten units," Erk noted.
Prof. Dr. Sever stated that they do not know yet at what rate the patients who develop acute kidney failure due to crush syndrome evolve into chronic kidney failure, saying, "However, this problem may develop in some patients after acute kidney failure due to other causes. Therefore, we think this problem may occur in a significant part of (the injured)."
Emphasizing that the Marmara earthquake experiences show that children are relatively better protected from crush syndrome, Sever gave the following information: "One of the possible reasons for this is that children were exposed to less trauma in the small intervals we call the life triangle. Because children's body surface areas can fit into smaller spaces because they are smaller, we can say that adults are at higher risk in this regard."
Noting that there are many elements that cause acute renal failure after crush syndrome, Sever continued: "There are many mechanisms that cause kidney failure. The most important one is the decrease in the circulating blood volume. The main reason is that after the patient is removed from the wreckage, a lot of fluid rushes into the crushed muscles.''
However, he concluded that after these types of injuries and urine decrease, a person might require dialysis for two or three weeks, while rarely ''this event can take one month."
