Hemodialysis: What if they can't get your blood back inside you?

[RightSide]

Last evening, near the end of my hemodialysis session, the dialyzer developed a lot of air bubbles (the tech wasn't sure why).  The machine sounded an alarm and promptly stopped.  Two techs were working hard to flush all the bubbles, but time was passing.  Finally, they managed to flush all the bubbles and restart the machine.  The tech said I had just a minute or so left before all that blood still inside the machine would have clotted--and I would have lost it.

So my question is:  What happens then?  Can I just go home without that blood and take some more EPOs to build it back up, or would there be other bad effects that might require me to go to the Emergency Room?

[jbeany]

They might have to give you a bit of extra saline to make up for the lost volume, but there really isn't that much in the lines in the machine at any given time.  It's not a big help to lose it, especially when you are already anemic, but it's very, very unlikely to send you to the ER.  More likely to send you to a nap when you get home. 

[monrein]

I've lost the whole lot a couple of times.  Didn't seem to make much difference in the long run but obviously not something any of us wants to happen.

[peleroja]

If I recall, the machine only removes a cup of blood at a time, cleans it, and then puts it back in.  When people give blood, I think they give more than that, so presumably blood keeps coming back.  Not 100% sure.

[Rerun]

Better safe than sorry.  Let them toss it.

[RichardMEL]

It's only about 200-300ml out of the body at any one time going through the machine. I've had the whole lot dumped once or twice and didn't really affect me - it's only 5% or so of your entire blood volume, so some saline would make up for it and it's not  big deal. You wouldn't want to do that every day though!