Nighttime dialysis grows in popularity

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Nighttime dialysis grows in popularity
Study sees benefits in evening treatments

By Christina E. Sanchez • THE TENNESSEAN • May 18, 2010

Clyde Ward no longer misses a half-day of work three times a week to get life-saving kidney dialysis treatments.

He now gets his blood cleaned out while he sleeps — after work.

The nighttime dialysis that Ward gets is more convenient, but research suggests that the nocturnal treatment, typically done over about eight hours, may also work better for some kidney patients compared with the four- to five-hour daytime treatments.

Nighttime dialysis, while not widely offered, has gained popularity around the country and in Europe. The therapy recently became available at a dialysis clinic, Fresenius Medical Care in Nashville.

"In a person with normal kidney function, the kidneys are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Dr. Stanley Lee, a kidney specialist and medical director at Nephrology Associates in Nashville. "The more kidney function they have, the better they feel."

Dialysis is a treatment for people whose kidneys have lost about 85 percent of their ability to function. Diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure can lead to kidney failure, also called end-stage renal disease.

With dialysis, a machine does some of the work of the kidneys, including ridding the body of waste, salt and extra water. About 355,000 people go through dialysis each year, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Ward, 59, is one of about 950 people in Davidson County and about 8,200 in Tennessee living with end-stage renal disease.

He began having kidney failure about seven years ago and subsequently went to dialysis. For a while he tried peritoneal dialysis, where the blood is cleaned and filtered through a catheter system while he slept at home. But that stopped working for him, and he switched to daytime treatment.

"I had to take time off from work, and it made the paychecks smaller," said Ward, a quality auditor for computers. "Doing it at nighttime, I don't have to ask for an excuse at work."
Routine starts at 6 p.m.

Ward goes to the Fresenius clinic on Orlando Drive in West Nashville, about a mile from his home, three times a week at 6 p.m. He hooks up to his dialysis machine, snuggles under his blanket and reads a book or tunes into the news on his personal television.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100518/NEWS01/5180340/1002/NEWS01/Nighttime+dialysis+grows+in+popularity