Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffHemolytic uremic syndrome requires careful management in the hospital. To ease immediate signs and symptoms and prevent further problems, hemolytic uremic syndrome treatment may include:
- Red blood cell transfusions. If you don't have enough red blood cells, you may feel chilled, fatigued and short of breath. You may have a rapid heart rate, yellow skin and dark urine. Red blood cell transfusions, given through an intravenous (IV) needle, may help reverse these signs and symptoms.
- Platelet transfusions. If you're bleeding or bruising easily, platelet transfusions can help your blood to clot. Like red blood cell transfusions, platelet transfusions are given through an IV needle.
- Plasma exchange. Plasma is the part of blood that supports the circulation of blood cells and platelets. Sometimes a machine is used to clear the blood of its own plasma and replace it with fresh or frozen donor plasma.
- Kidney dialysis. Sometimes dialysis is needed to filter waste and excess fluid from the blood. Dialysis is usually a temporary treatment until the kidneys begin functioning adequately again. If the kidney damage is significant, however, permanent kidney failure — requiring long-term dialysis or a kidney transplant — is possible.
Despite the severity of the condition, appropriate treatment leads to a full recovery for most people with hemolytic uremic syndrome — especially young children.
- Hemolytic uremic syndrome. National Institutes of Health: National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/childkidneydiseases/hemolytic_uremic_syndrome/. Accessed Sept. 10, 2008.
- Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). American Academy of Family Physicians. http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/kidney/905.html. Accessed Sept. 9, 2008.
- Razzaq S. Hemolytic uremic syndrome: An emerging health risk. American Family Physician. 2006;74(6):991-996.
- Rose BD, et al. Diagnosis of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura-hemolytic uremic syndrome in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 9, 2008.
- Hemolytic-uremic syndrome. In: Betz CL. Mosby's Pediatric Nursing Reference. 6th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby/Elsevier; 2008:232-238.
- Steckelberg JM (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Sept. 17, 2008.
- Focus on ground beef. United States Department of Agriculture. www.fsis.usda.gov/Factsheets/Ground_Beef_and_Food_Safety/index.asp. Accessed Sept. 17, 2008.
