LAUSR

The study group comprised thirty consecutive patients with Stage IV and V chronic renal disease who attended the outpatient clinic of Government Medical College, Kozhikode. from April 2012 to March 2013. They were referred from the department of nephrology for management of pruritus. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee, and written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. Patients above the age of 18 years, and those having a uremic pruritus score of more than 5 on the visual analog scale were enrolled for the study. Patients with a history of photosensitivity, early renal disease (Stage I, II and III), pregnancy and lactation were excluded. Those who had pruritus secondary to other skin or systemic diseases were also excluded. Uremic pruritus was defined as pruritus appearing shortly before the onset of dialysis, with three or more episodes of itching over a period of two weeks. The symptoms appeared at least once a day, lasted for at least a few minutes and caused discomfort. The itch appeared in a regular pattern during preceding six months.3