Dialysis has come a long way since its invention

[okarol]

08/19/2007

Dialysis has come a long way since its invention

BY DANIEL AXELROD
The Times Tribune
STAFF WRITER

Cate Lewis didn’t need any training to empathize with the diabetic patients she helps treat for kidney failure each day as facility administrator of the DaVita Dialysis Unit at Moses Taylor Hospital.

A year after graduating nursing school at 22 in 1974, Ms. Lewis, now 56, was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease — a hereditary condition affecting 600,000 Americans — that forced her to receive dialysis and a kidney transplant.

Although the number of diabetics has increased to roughly 21 million nationwide — 2.6 million more people were diagnosed between 2002 and 2005 alone — fewer diabetics go on dialysis if they’re treated properly.

Thirty years ago, one-third of diabetics developed kidney failure, but less than 10 percent experience kidney failure today if they take care of themselves and receive proper medical attention, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“So many people (with diabetes) don’t take care of themselves,” said Roger Chapman, 56, of South Abington, a Type 1 or juvenile onset diabetes patient who regularly undergoes dialysis. “And there are so many complications — heart disease, retinopathy. Weight loss is important, too, especially with Type 2. You have to take charge.”

Artificial kidney

Today, Ms. Lewis spends her days overseeing a staff hooking diabetes patients with severe kidney failure to smaller more efficient dialysis machines. They act as artificial kidneys cleansing the blood and balancing the body’s chemicals. Patients with other types of kidney failure also use the machines.

Ms. Lewis’s rare kidney disease, and her father’s death from the same condition at age 53 the same year she was diagnosed, spurred her to devote more than 30 years to nursing dialysis patients.

She’s spent her entire career in the Moses Taylor dialysis unit, which is owned by the hospital and operated by DaVita Inc., a national chain of dialysis providers.

Treatments for kidney-failure patients have evolved since dialysis was invented in 1944 and the first successful long-term transplant of a human organ occurred with a kidney during 1954.

“When I first started working in dialysis, treatments were six hours long and the artificial kidney was in a big canister,” said Ms. Lewis, a Camillus, N.Y., native who is now a Moscow resident.

“You could just look at the patients and tell they were on dialysis because they had this pasty look.”

Now, kidney-failure patients look healthier and they generally spend two hours less hooked to the dialysis machines filtering their blood, she said.

Patients don’t need as many blood transfusions and the dialysis equipment is less bulky and more efficient. It’s available in more places, allowing people to take vacations and travel more easily.

Moses Taylor Hospital also has Regional Dialysis System sites in Old Forge, Childs, Tunkhannock and Susquehanna. Fresenius Dialysis has units in Dunmore and Wilkes-Barre. Dialysis is also available at a Pittston location and units at Mercy Hospital and Community Medical Center.

Despite the improvements to dialysis and the many available local units, dialysis remains a physically and mentally draining experience, patients said.

Currently, companies are working to expand offerings for home dialysis machines. These devices will increasingly allow patients to spend at least part of their dialysis time in their houses. Such dialysis sessions could be shorter, yet more frequent.

Faster machines

Some dialysis centers are already offering faster dialysis machines along with nocturnal dialysis, in which patients have their blood filtered while sleeping in a treatment center overnight.

For now, kidney-failure patients generally have to get the four-hour blood filtration procedure three times a week and the sessions often sap their bodies of all their strength. Some, such as John Gillar, 70, of Olyphant, need reassurance when they begin their treatments.

When Mr. Gillar heard he had to go dialysis six months ago, “I thought I was heading to the marble orchard,” he said, referring to a cemetery.

His diagnosis seven years ago was rough. He lived an active life, spending years as a maintenance man for a private, gated community in Hamlin and working as a volunteer fireman.Yet, his dialysis treatments and his presence on a kidney transplant list, have given him hope he can live longer for his six children, 12 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

“I’d tell someone who’s diagnosed with needing dialysis they should go get it,” he said. “It’s the best thing for them if they want to save their lives.”

Contact the writer: daxelrod@timesshamrock.com

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