{"id":15306,"date":"2010-06-02T09:46:45","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T13:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=15306"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:40:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:40:33","slug":"health-center-physician-leads-effort-to-save-whale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/06\/health-center-physician-leads-effort-to-save-whale\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Center Physician Leads Effort to Save Whale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Mystic<\/a>
Mystic Aquarium veterinarians and trainers obtain blood samples from the tail fin of Inuk, a beluga whale. Photo provided by Dr. Andre Kaplan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A team of veterinarians, staff, and volunteers at Mystic Aquarium<\/a> led by a UConn Health Center physician performed dialysis on a 2,300-pound beluga whale with kidney failure and were able to keep him alive for two weeks.<\/p>\n

The team, under the leadership of Dr. Andre Kaplan<\/a>, chief of blood purification at John Dempsey Hospital and medical director of the UConn Dialysis Center<\/a>, used an approach called intestinal dialysis, essentially using the bowel as a substitute kidney. The whale ingested a chemical solution that flushed out waste products and was then re-infused with injected fluids in order to correct abnormal chemistries. This was done five times a day, and required a dozen sets of hands to execute.<\/p>\n

The whale, named Inuk, died on day 15. Dr. Allison Tuttle, the aquarium\u2019s chief veterinarian, concluded it was unlikely that the cause of death was due to kidney failure, and were it not for additional conditions, the dialysis treatment would have been sufficient to control the renal failure.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Mystic<\/a>
Mystic Aquarium called on Dr. Andre Kaplan of the UConn Dialysis Center for help in treating Inuk's kidney disease. Photo provided by Dr. Andre Kaplan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kaplan says he and the aquarium staff agree that the procedure was successful in its goal, which was “to take care of the potassium, acidosis, and nitrogen waste products associated with kidney failure. It worked as a kidney replacement therapy. This has never been done.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a study published in 1994 (D.M. Ward, Proceedings of the International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine<\/em>), peritoneal dialysis, a different type of kidney replacement therapy, had previously been tried unsuccessfully in a pilot whale. Kaplan says that, given the positive results obtained with intestinal dialysis, veterinarians can consider the method used on Inuk as a viable treatment option in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe type of acute kidney failure which Inuk had is commonly reversible,\u201d Kaplan says. \u201cIf the whale had survived another few weeks, it\u2019s likely his own kidneys would have healed. The anticipated goals of the therapy were met. We have very good data that show this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<p>Inuk,<\/a>
Inuk, a 28-year-old beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium, was suffering from kidney failure. Photo provided by the Sea Research Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The data indicate marked improvements in the whale\u2019s blood urea nitrogen, potassium, and bicarbonate levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis treatment is the first of its kind for acute renal failure in a beluga whale, and is a significant contribution to the field of marine mammal medicine,\u201d says Dr. Tracy Romano, senior vice president of research and zoological operations at Mystic Aquarium.<\/p>\n

Kaplan is preparing a presentation for the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology<\/a> this fall in Denver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Andre Kaplan headed a team that successfully performed dialysis on a whale with kidney failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-15306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 01:00:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15306"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37224,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306\/revisions\/37224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15306"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=15306"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}