Kolkata, Oct 28 (IANS): Veteran Bengali Actor Soumitra Chatterjee's health condition continued to remain critical and he would undergo two or three episodes of dialysis to tackle his renal functioning on Wednesday, doctors at Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital said.

Chatterjee has been on ventilator support since Monday as the medical expert team at the hospital described his renal function as 'not so good.'

"The team of nephrologists has decided that 2-3 episodes of dialysis will help bring down urea and creatinine levels in his body which should also improve the consciousness. We will also try to restore urine output of the actor. Hopefully the dialysis will be for a shorter duration," said Dr Arindam Kar, who is heading the medical team for Chatterjee at the hospital.

The 85-year-old Dadasaheb Phalke awardee has been admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital for almost 19 days now and his consciousness level has gone down significantly in the last few days.

His count of haemoglobin also came down a few days back while the urea level in his body was up. The key problem for Chatterjee was Covid-19 encephalopathy, hospital sources said.

It was learnt that there was no gastrointestinal bleeding on Wednesday. The oxygen support was also at about 40-50 per cent, again unchanged since Tuesday.

"Ventilator parameters are good. We have been able to detect the off-ending bacteria and organisms that are creating the secondary infections and we have initiated the antibiotics according to the sensitivity report," said Kar.

Chatterjee was battling with Covid-19. He was tested positive for coronavirus on October 5 and got admitted to the hospital the next morning.

He was shooting for a documentary titled 'Abhijan' directed by actor Parambrata Chattopadhyay. The last time he attended the shooting floor at Bharatlaxmi Studio was on October 1.

The next shooting schedule was fixed on October 7.