If the underlying disease causes cardiac output to deteriorate despite expansion of plasma volume, the kidney continues to retain salt and water, which then leaks from the vasculature and becomes interstitial or pulmonary edema. At this point, diuretic use becomes necessary to reduce the accumulation of edema, particularly in the lungs. Reduction of pulmonary vascular congestion with diuretics may actually improve oxygenation and thereby improve myocardial function. Reduction of preload can reduce the size of the heart, allowing it to work at a more efficient fiber length. Edema associated with heart failure is generally managed with loop diuretics. In some instances, salt and water retention may become so severe that a combination of thiazides and loop diuretics is necessary.
In treating the heart failure patient with diuretics, it must always be remembered that cardiac output in these patients is being maintained in part by high filling pressures. Therefore, excessive use of diuretics may diminish venous return and further impair cardiac output. This is especially critical in right ventricular heart failure. Systemic, rather than pulmonary, vascular congestion is the hallmark of this disorder. Diuretic-induced volume contraction predictably reduces venous return and can severely compromise cardiac output if left ventricular filling pressure is reduced below 15 mm Hg (see Chapter 13). Reduction in cardiac output, resulting from either left or right ventricular dysfunction, also eventually leads to renal dysfunction resulting from reduced perfusion pressures.
Diuretic-induced metabolic alkalosis, exacerbated by hypokalemia, is another adverse effect that may further compromise cardiac function. This complication can be treated with replacement of K+ and restoration of intravascular volume with saline; however, severe heart failure may preclude the use of saline even in patients who have received excessive diuretic therapy. In these cases, adjunctive use of acetazolamide helps to correct the alkalosis.
Another serious toxicity of diuretic use in the cardiac patient is hypokalemia. Hypokalemia can exacerbate underlying cardiac arrhythmias and contribute to digitalis toxicity. This can usually be avoided by having the patient reduce Na+ intake while taking diuretics, thus decreasing Na+ delivery to the K+-secreting collecting tubule. Patients who do not adhere to a low Na+ diet must take oral KCl supplements or a K+-sparing diuretic.
Recently, there has been interest in the use of vaptans in heart failure, not only to treat hyponatremia but also to treat volume overload. Electrolyte dysfunction is less likely with a combination of diuretics and vaptans as opposed to higher doses of the diuretics alone.
A variety of diseases interfere with the kidney’s critical role in volume homeostasis. Although some renal disorders cause salt wasting, most cause retention of salt and water. When renal failure is severe (GFR < 5 mL/min), diuretic agents are of little benefit, because glomerular filtration is insufficient to generate or sustain a natriuretic response. However, a large number of patients, and even dialysis patients, with milder degrees of renal insufficiency (GFR of 5–15 mL/min), can be treated with diuretics with some success.
There is still interest in the question as to whether diuretic therapy can alter the severity or the outcome of acute renal failure. This is because “nonoliguric” forms of acute renal insufficiency have better outcomes than “oliguric” (<400–500 mL/24 h urine output) acute renal failure. Almost all studies done to address this question have shown that diuretic therapy helps in the short-term fluid management of some of these patients with acute renal failure, but that it has no impact on the long-term outcome.