Big Advance for Dialysis Patients

Big Advance for Dialysis Patients

Last Edited: Thursday, 02 Apr 2009, 9:58 PM CDT
Created On: Thursday, 02 Apr 2009, 7:11 PM CDT

* MELISSA WILSON

HOUSTON - A big advance in treatment options for patients with kidney disease comes in a small package.

The FDA has approved what patients are calling the first truly portable dialysis machine. Patients are thrilled they can travel for the first time!

We met up with a local woman, who has been on dialysis for a couple of years. Her husband helps her with dialysis at home. She's so relieved that she doesn't have to go to a dialysis center, though she was trained by one.

She works with nurses and technicians at DaVita Medical Center. She had to train for a month, to learn how to take care of herself at home.

NxStage Medical, Inc.is the manufacturer of the particular machine that we covered in our news story.

Here are some interesting pros, doctors share about at-home dialysis:

Reduction in depressive symptoms-A 27 percent reduction in scores measuring depressive symptoms in patients surveyed four months after receiving daily home hemodialysis therapy.

These findings suggest that patients on daily, home therapy are less like to be clinically depressed than patients undergoing conventional in-center dialysis.

Faster recovery time after dialysis-Short, daily sessions of home hemodialysis more closely mimic normal kidney function. Interim study results show that patients undergoing more frequent therapy recover fast enough to resume normal activity in little more than one hour following each treatment.

This is a dramatic improvement over the average eight hours of recovery time for a matched cohort of thrice-weekly, in-center patients drawn from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) database.

Improved quality of life-Using an international standard for Quality of Life assessment, daily home hemodialysis patients in the study reported statistically significant improvement in their physical ability to complete daily work or activities; general health; vitality or energy level and both mental and physical capacity to participate in social activities, enabling patients on daily, home therapy to live fuller, more active lives.

We also spoke with a Nephrologist at DaVita, who told us about studies that show at home dialysis can prolong a patient's life. Dr. Stephen Fadem says it can even save patients money.

That's because patients save time by not driving to and from a dialysis unit. They can spend that time working, because they feel better with dialysis, so they may want to work harder and want to work more.

Those are the pros. Dr. Fadem says the biggest "con" is patients don't have a trained technician or medical technician with them at home.

He says to qualify for at home dialysis, patients must have
chronic renal disease in the later stages. He says it's based on their willingness and desire to do home dialysis and they have to have a partner to do it. (Although he says at home periotneal patients do not require a partner.)

He says patients also have to have the manual dexterity to handle the machine. They have to have a level of compulsiveness, so they're very careful how they do the procedure.

Then, doctors have to make sure they have a suitable home environment, a place in which is isolated and clean, so that they can set the machine up.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/health/090402_dialysis_patients_device