Erythropoietin-induced hypertensive urgency in a patient with chronic renal insufficiency: case report and review of the literature.

Hypertension is a potentially dangerous side effect of erythropoietin treatment; however, extreme elevations in blood pressure are rare. A 75-year-old woman with chronic renal insufficiency was treated with subcutaneous erythropoietin. Three weeks before she started receiving erythropoietin, her hematocrit was 27.