The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved sodium zirconium cyclosilicate, a highly-selective, oral potassium-removing agent for adults with hyperkalemia. The drug has been shown to reduce potassium levels in patients with chronic kidney disease, heart failure, diabetes and those taking renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors. Hyperkalemia is frequent, but occurs mostly in patients with chronic kidney disease and is often the cause of discontinuation or omission of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors in patients with diabetes, chronic kidney disease and heart failure and if not treated properly may cause cardiac arrhythmias and if not controlled immediately may cause death too.
Without much evidence in the literature on its efficacy, sodium polystyrene sulfonate is being used frequently in the clinical setting to treat hyperkalemia. In the last few…
