Center offers nocturnal dialysis for kidney patients

Center offers nocturnal dialysis for kidney patients

By TAYA FLORES • tflores@jconline.com • September 28, 2010

Shawn Head of Lafayette suffers from kidney failure, which causes the kidneys to lose their filtering ability. Although Head still has some kidney function left, he needs dialysis to filter his blood properly.

So he has tried various methods of hemodialysis including using a dialysis machine at home and visiting a dialysis center during the day. Now Head is trying nocturnal dialysis or dialysis at night at Fresenius Medical Care Lafayette.

"It's more convenient, you have to sleep anyway, so you're not wasting half of the day," the 41-year-old said. "The nighttime dialysis works better for me because I work on cars during the day."

The Fresenius Medical Care center has began offering nocturnal dialysis in June to offer patients flexibility and better health outcomes. This type of dialysis is used to treat patients with end stage renal disease or kidney failure.

"It's the patient's choice but at the same time we know that night time dialysis offers improvement in their lifestyle," said Dr. Akram Al-Makki, Fresenius Medical Care medical director.

He said clinical studies have shown that nighttime dialysis improves a patient's blood pressure, which helps to lower the amount of blood pressure medication they have to take. It also may help improve cardiac function and improves the patient's sleep, he said.

Compared to daytime hemodialysis, a patient's blood is able to be filtered for longer periods of time making it easier on the body.

For instance, daytime dialysis patients visit the center three times a week for three to four hours at a time to filter the blood and remove excess fluid from the body.

However, during the nighttime, dialysis patients are able to spend 6 to 8 hours on the machine three times a week. They can choose to sleep, relax or watch TV, Al-Makki said.

He said the blood flow rate through the machine is usually slower at night than during the day.

"The faster the blood flow rate the better the dialysis you get, but if it's too fast the patient might have low blood pressure," he said.

He said low blood pressure is dangerous because a patient does not receive enough blood supply to vital organs such as the brain and the heart.

Amie Atkisson, a registered nurse and interim clinic manager, said most of the patients who have switched from daytime to night time hemodialysis have noticed an improvement in their health.

She said patients have told her that they feel better, sleep better and have an increase in their appetite because they are able to get rid of more toxins.

Staci Price, a registered nurse and operations manager, said it gives patients another option -- "So they have their time at work and with their family," she said.
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Shawn Head doses while receiving dialysis treatment at Fresenius Medical Center, 915 Mezzanine Drive.
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Shawn Head doses while receiving dialysis treatment at Fresenius Medical Center, 915 Mezzanine Drive. (By John Terhune/Journal & Courier)
For more information

Fresenius Medical Care Lafayette offers a Treatment Options Program for people who want to learn more about chronic kidney disease (CKD), or the slow loss of kidney function over time, and treatment options available today.

The sessions, which are free and open to the public, are for people with chronic kidney disease who may need dialysis, existing dialysis patients interested in learning about alternative treatment options, family members, friends and caregivers.

The sessions also are open to anyone who is at risk for developing chronic kidney disease such as people with diabetes or high blood pressure, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans, senior citizens, and people with a family history of chronic kidney disease.

For more information or to reserve a seat for an upcoming class, call (888) 292-7681 or (765) 448-4851 or visit UltraCare-Dialysis.com/TOPS

-- Taya Flores/
tflores@jconline.com