Increase in Plasma Extracellular Fluid Volume Ratio Caused by Bilateral Nephrectomy in Patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis

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Abstract
Changes, observed in rats after bilateral nephrectomy, in blood pressure and in the relation between plasma volume-extracellular fluid volume or plasma volume-interstitial fluid volume, are consistent with the postulation that the kidney secretes a substance that regulates, to some degree, the compliance of the interstitial space. In order to evaluate the possibility that this also occurs in humans, we have carried out a retrospective analysis of measurements of extracellular fluid volume, plasma volume, and blood volume made prior to and after bilateral nephrectomy in a group of 9 patients. It was observed that significant increases had occurred in both the plasma-extracellular fluid volume ratio (0.22 before, 0.26 after) and in the blood-extracellular fluid volume ratio (0.27 before, 0.32 after). These data are consistent with a reduction in compliance of the interstitial compartment caused by bilateral nephrectomy in man, even though other explanations cannot be excluded.