Objectives: to analyze the effects of acupuncture techniques in patients with chronic kidney disease. Methods: a systematic review conducted in six databases, from September to December 2017, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses’ criteria. The following descriptors were used: Acupuncture AND Chronic Renal Insufficiency AND Clinical Trial. Results: nine studies were selected; the acupuncture techniques used were auriculotherapy, electroacupuncture and acupressure aimed at improving quality of life, fatigue, sleep and clinical variables of the disease. The studies that assessed quality of life, sleep and fatigue presented significant benefits. Studies that assessed quality of life, sleep and fatigue presented significant benefits. There was no statistical significance in the improvement of serum creatinine levels and glomerular filtration rate. Methodological and assessment tools’ divergence made impossible meta-analysis Conclusions: studies reinforce the positive effect of acupuncture in improving quality of life, fatigue and sleep in patients.

Objective: to assess the pain and the differences of this assessment with social, economic and clinical variables in individuals with chronic kidney disease. Methods: cross-sectional study, with 90 patients with hemodialysis clinics. Three instruments were used clinical/sociodemographic, visual analogue pain scale and McGill pain questionnaire. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis U tests were used. Results: the most frequent kind of pain was musculoskeletal (35.6%), which was classified as moderate by using the visual analogue pain scale. In McGill’s questionnaire, the most selected categories were sensory and affective, which characterize pain as acute and thin. Significant statistical differences in medians of pain were found with family income, source of income, use of analgesics/anti-inflammatories, use of acupuncture and impaired sleep. Conclusion: pain was a recurrent result in various regions of the body among patients with chronic renal failure.

Objective: To assess the association between the comfort level of chronic hemodialysis patients with sociodemographic and clinical variables using the General Comfort Questionnaire. Method: Cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach, considering 180 chronic hemodialysis renal patients. Two instruments were used: one for sociodemographic and clinical variables; and the General Comfort Questionnaire, Brazilian version. Mann-Whitney’s, Kruskal-Wallis’s, and Spearman’s tests were used for data analysis. Results: The overall comfort level of patients was 78.16%. The socio-cultural domain presented the lowest level of comfort and the psychospiritual the highest level. Some variables were significantly associated with the domains, such as marital status, education, and considering oneself to be anxious. Conclusion: In the four domains of comfort, it was possible to identify patients’ needs, such as the presence and intensity of pain, anxiety, constipation and type of access, making it possible to guide nurses in the systematization of care and improve the comfort of these patients.

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