The history of home hemodialysis and its likely revival

Abstract

The home extracorporeal hemodialysis, which aroused a great interest in the past, has not kept its promises due to the complexity and expectations for family involvement in treatment management.

In the United States NxStage One portable system was proposed and designed for home use.

In this work we describe, starting from the history of home hemodialysis, the method with NxStage system by comparing it with the conventional HD in 5 patients.

The dialysis efficiency was similar between the two treatments, even if home hemodialysis showed a reduction in serum urea, creatinine and phosphorus. At the same time phosphate binders use decreased with an increase in serum calcium while hemoglobin increased reducing doses of erythropoietin. The method was successful in the training of the patients and their partners during hospital training and at home. Patients have shown great enthusiasm at the beginning and during the therapy, which is developed around the user’s personal needs, being able to decide at its own times during 24 hours according to personal needs, in addition to faster recovery after the dialysis. This method certainly improved the patients’ wellness and increased their autonomy.