Dialysis is a life sustaining treatment which became available in the 1970's for patients with kidney failure. It is an essential life support treatment that kidney patients must receive several times a week in order to stay alive. Normal kidneys are responsible for a wide variety of body functions. They remove toxins/waste, regulate water/fluid, balance electrolytes and minerals and produce hormones.
Dialysis is a treatment (done in two different ways), it does not cure kidney disease but provides the essential functions of the kidney, artificially doing the work of the failed kidney.
It is estimated that by the end of this decade close to 500,000 patients in the United States will develop End Stage Kidney Failure and will require some form of dialysis to sustain life. This is primarily due to an aging population, the epidemic of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Currently the "conventional" method for providing dialysis treatments is three times a week dialysis with an average of 3- 4 hours per treatment performed at a dialysis clinic.
Under these "conventional" modalities, patients often experience certain predictable problems. One of the main problems is fluid overload with water being retained in the body causing high blood pressure (hypertension) and thickening and stretching of the heart muscle. Some of the other problems include accelerated heart disease, premature calcification of blood vessels, depression, prolonged post dialysis low blood pressure (hypotension), fatigue, disability, high potassium (hyperkalemia), high phosphorous (hyperphosphatemia), bone disease and sexual dysfunction.
Over the past few years, a strong interest in the United States has developed throughout the nephrology community for more frequent dialysis regimens. This is done through slow nocturnal (while patient is sleeping at night) or short daily (while awake) dialysis. Daily Home Hemodialysis (DHHD) is a "new modality" to most in the US. In contrast, European and especially Canadian patients have benefited from DHHD/Nocturnal Home hemodialysis for many years.
An increasing number of scientific publications regarding slow nocturnal and short daily dialysis indicate that increased length and frequency of dialysis has several advantages and significantly improves patient's quality of life as well as their overall health status.
Daily Home Hemodialysis is now gaining momentum in the United States primarily due to the HEMO study which concluded that under the conventional three times a week dialysis we could not further improve patient's quality of life and secondly due to new technology by Nxstage (see equipment) which has made it easier for dialysis providers to start a home hemodialysis program and for patients alike who can now learn a simple device designed for their home therapies.
