Home Dialysis Central
...everything you need to know about doing dialysis at home.
Journal watch: HD
Future of the artificial kidney
Learn the latest on futuristic dialysis with wearable and miniaturized devices!
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Naturally higher red blood cell counts do NOT reduce survival
It never made sense to us that a "normal" hemoglobin level would somehow become harmful in kidney failure. And, in fact, it's not the Hgb itself that causes harm. A new DOPPS study of 545 people on dialysis whose Hgbs were normal without ESA drugs found no difference in survival.
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
TPA reduces HD catheter infections by 50%
Heparin is put into HD catheters after each use to prevent blood clots. Researchers replaced it with a clot-busting drug used for strokes—TPA—at one treatment per week. The new routine reduced catheter infections. (Hmmm. Is heparin sterile? What if TPA was used at ALL HD treatments?)
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Electrolyte management with more-frequent HD
How do you adjust short daily or nocturnal HD treatments to keep electrolytes in balance? This abstract isn't all that helpful—but you may want to get hold of the whole article.
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Buttonholes made easier with BioHole™ device
A polycarbonate peg placed in the needle track after dialysis can form buttonholes more quickly and accurately than using cannulation alone. The BioHole peg may help more people use the buttonhole technique—so they can take their treatments home.
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Does dialysis time matter? YES!
Perhaps if in-center folks got more HD, they would see that they feel better—and think about home. Per Drs. Lacson and Lazarus from Fresenius, "Compelling rationale and recent outcome data support use of longer Td [dialysis time]...Until such time that results from prospective randomized trials are available, we believe that physicians should prescribe and exert all efforts to convince thrice-weekly hemodialysis patients to accept 4 h as minimum Td."
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Dialysis at a crossroads: 50 years later
The well-known and highly respected nephrologists who sent a letter to CMS about how to improve dialysis care—with longer and/or more-frequent treatments—have written an article summing up their thoughts.
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Vitamin D deficiency linked with EPO resistance
What if resistance to EPO is related to low levels of vitamin D that tend to occur in people on dialysis? A new study looks at just that, and found a link. While more rigorous studies are needed, it's an intriguing thought...
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Watch your water soluble vitamins on nocturnal HD
More dialysis washes more vitamins out of the blood, finds a new study from Australia. Among people who were doing nocturnal HD, levels of vitamin C and thiamine were low. Supplements may be wise—ask your doctor.
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
Nocturnal in-center treatments save lives
A new study from Turkey matched 247 people on 8-hour nocturnal in-center HD 3 times a week with 247 doing standard 4-hour HD by age, sex, diabetes, and length of time on dialysis. After a year, those doing nocturnal had 72% better survival—a significant improvement.
Read more | (added Feb 24, 2011)
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