More good news on short daily dialysis

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Kidney Int. 2012 Sep;82(5):561-9. doi: 10.1038/ki.2012.168. Epub 2012 May 23.

At-home short daily hemodialysis improves the long-term health-related quality of life.

Finkelstein FO, Schiller B, Daoui R, Gehr TW, Kraus MA, Lea J, Lee Y, Miller BW, Sinsakul M, Jaber BL.

Source

Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. fof@comcast.net

Abstract

Patients with chronic kidney disease treated by in-center conventional hemodialysis (3 times per week) have significant impairments in health-related quality of life measures, which have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. FREEDOM is an ongoing prospective cohort study measuring the potential benefits of at-home short daily (6 times per week) hemodialysis. In this interim report we examine the long-term effect of short daily hemodialysis on health-related quality of life, as measured by the SF-36 health survey. This was administered at baseline, 4 and 12 months after initiation of short daily hemodialysis to 291 participants (total cohort), of which 154 completed the 12-month follow-up (as-treated cohort). At the time of analysis, the mean age was 53 years, 66% were men, 58% had an AV fistula, 90% transitioned from in-center hemodialysis, and 45% had diabetes mellitus. In the total cohort analysis, both the physical- and mental-component summary scores improved over the 12-month period, as did all 8 individual domains of the SF-36. The as-treated cohort analysis showed similar improvements with the exception of the role-emotional domain. Significantly, in the as-treated cohort, the percentage of patients achieving a physical-component summary score at least equivalent to the general population more than doubled. Hence, at-home short daily hemodialysis is associated with long-term improvements in various physical and mental health-related quality of life measures