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Hemodialysis Blog

Blog (9)

Two-Day Dialysis Interval Could Pose Danger: Study

Posted 21 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21 – Waiting more than a day between dialysis treatments ups the risk of death and hospitalization in people with kidney disease, new research suggests. Patients are more likely to die or head to the hospital for cardiovascular-related and other complications following a two-day interval between dialysis sessions compared to a one-day gap, concluded researchers from the U.S. Renal Data System (USRDS) and the University of Minnesota, both in Minneapolis. "It shows an association between adverse outcomes and a two-day interval between dialysis sessions," said study author Dr. Robert Foley, deputy director of the USRDS Coordinating Center, whose observational study involved more than 32,000 people on hemodialysis. Hemodialysis is the more common form of dialysis in the United States, said Dr. Martin Zand, a professor of medicine in the division of nephrology at the ... Read more

Related support groups: Chronic Kidney Disease, Hemodialysis

Dialysis Patients Unprepared for Disasters, Study Contends

Posted 25 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Aug. 25 – In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, such as a tornado, earthquake or fire, most dialysis patients don't have a plan to get the medical assistance they need, according to a new study. Although these kidney-disease patients rely on technology and dialysis clinics to survive, researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that many don't know the address of a backup center. This lack of preparation could seriously endanger the patients' health, the researchers said. "A dialysis patient relies on frequent visits to a dialysis facility to maintain his or her health, and when patients cannot receive dialysis due to lack of clean water, lack of electricity, impassable roadways, etc., severe medical complications can occur quite quickly," Mark Foster, a student at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said in a ... Read more

Related support groups: Chronic Kidney Disease, Hemodialysis, Peritoneal dialysis

Blood Pressure Drop During Dialysis May Raise Clot Risk

Posted 29 Jul 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, July 29 – Low blood pressure while undergoing dialysis puts patients at increased risk for clots where their blood vessels are connected to the dialysis machine, a new study says. Previous research had found that a sudden drop in blood pressure during dialysis can lead to short-term gastrointestinal, muscular and neurologic symptoms, and long-term problems such as stroke, seizure, heart damage and death. This new study, led by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, examined data collected between 1995 and 2000 from 1,426 dialysis patients who took part in a clinical trial sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Dialysis is a treatment for kidney-failure patients that uses a machine to cleanse their blood. Many patients are attached to the dialysis machine through a fistula, a surgically created vascular access point in the body that's connected to ... Read more

Related support groups: Hemodialysis, Hemodialysis Anticoagulation, Peritoneal dialysis

Lab-Grown Blood Vessels Seem to Help Dialysis Patients

Posted 27 Jun 2011 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, June 27 – In early research, blood vessels originating from a donor's skin cells and grown in a laboratory have been successfully implanted in three dialysis patients. These engineered grafts have functioned well for about 8 months, say researchers reporting Monday at a special online conference sponsored by the American Heart Association. The three patients – all of whom lived in Poland and were on dialysis for end-stage kidney disease – received the new vessels to allow better access for dialysis. But the hope is that these types of bioengineered, "off-the-shelf" tissues can someday be used as replacement arteries throughout the body, including heart bypass. "The grafts available now perform quite poorly," said lead researcher Todd N. McAllister, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cytograft Tissue Engineering Inc., the Novato, Calif.-based maker of the grafts and the ... Read more

Related support groups: Renal Failure, Hemodialysis, Peritoneal dialysis

Many Dialysis Patients at Risk for High Radiation Exposure

Posted 25 Feb 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Feb. 24 – A large number of dialysis patients are at increased risk of cancer due to high radiation doses, and doctors should think about reducing these patients' levels of radiation exposure, a new study suggests. The researchers noted that many kidney disease patients who are receiving dialysis also have other health conditions that require them to undergo radiation procedures for diagnosis and treatment, resulting in high doses of radiation over an extended period of time. The study, from researchers at University Hospital "Maggiore della Carita," in Novara, Italy, included 106 dialysis patients whose exposure to radiation from medical procedures was assessed for an average of three years. On average, the patients received radiation doses that were equivalent of about 1,000 chest X-rays per year. Computed tomography (CT) scans accounted for only 19 percent of the total ... Read more

Related support groups: Hemodialysis, Peritoneal dialysis

Heart Rhythm Disorder May Double Death Risk for Dialysis Patients

Posted 13 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 13 – The heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation is increasingly common in kidney dialysis patients and puts them at increased risk for death, researchers have found. In a new study, investigators analyzed data from the U.S. Renal Data System and found that the prevalence of atrial fibrillation increased more than threefold between 1992 and 2006, from 3.5 percent to 10.7 percent of dialysis patients. The actual number of affected patients increased sixfold, due to the increasing number of people in the United States who require dialysis. Among dialysis patients most likely to experience atrial fibrillation were older patients and those with other medical conditions. Whites appear to be at a higher risk than patients of other racial/ethnic groups, according to the study, which is scheduled for publication in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of ... Read more

Related support groups: Atrial Fibrillation, Hemodialysis, Peritoneal dialysis

Study Finds Home Dialysis as Good as Hemodialysis at Centers

Posted 28 Sep 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 28 – Patients with end-stage kidney disease who have dialysis at home fare just as well as their counterparts who do hemodialysis, which is traditionally performed in a hospital or dialysis center, new research shows. "This is the first demonstration with a follow-up for up to five years," said Dr. Rajnish Mehrotra, lead author of the study that is published online Sept. 27 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Not only was there no difference, the improvements in survival have been greater for patients who do dialysis at home." Yet patients seem loathe to pick the at-home option, known as peritoneal dialysis, even if they're aware of its existence, finds another study in the same issue of the journal. And, as an accompanying editorial points out, the proportion of Americans using peritoneal dialysis plummeted from 14.4 percent in 1995 to about 7 percent in 2007. Both ... Read more

Related support groups: Hemodialysis

Fatigue May Predict Heart Attack in Dialysis Patients

Posted 25 Feb 2010 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Feb. 25 – Fatigue in dialysis patients may be a warning sign of an impending heart attack or other serious heart problems, a new study suggests. Japanese researchers had 788 dialysis patients complete a fatigue questionnaire and found that about 16 percent of them had a high fatigue score. After two years of follow-up, patients with high fatigue scores were more than twice as likely to have suffered cardiovascular events, such as a heart attack or stroke. The fatigue questionnaire used in the study differentiates fatigue from many factors associated with it, including anxiety, depression, pain, infection and overwork. The researchers found that fatigue was the strongest predictor of cardiovascular risk, even in patients with known risk factors, such as diabetes, malnutrition and previous cardiovascular disease. "Our research identifies fatigue as an important bio-alarm to ... Read more

Related support groups: Hemodialysis, Peritoneal dialysis

For Some Kidney Patients, Home Dialysis Is Better

Posted 25 Jul 2009 by Drugs.com

SATURDAY, July 25 – More than 340,000 Americans are on dialysis to treat kidney failure, but only a tiny fraction are taking advantage of a treatment option that may improve their quality of life. Studies suggest that home hemodialysis administered overnight, otherwise known as "nocturnal dialysis," may be a better way to go for some patients. The key advantage is it allows for many more hours of blood-cleansing therapy than a kidney patient would typically receive in a conventional, three-times-a-week dialysis center-based program. "If I had kidney failure, and I think this applies to at least a number of physicians who know what all this is about, what we would do is we would do overnight dialysis six nights a week," said Dr. Christopher R. Blagg, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Washington and executive director emeritus of Northwest Kidney Centers in Seattle. ... Read more

Related support groups: Renal Failure, Hemodialysis