Night dialysis a bonus
Kidney patients could reclaim some freedom from dialysis machines if they switched to more frequent overnight dialysis in their own homes.
Up to a third of those on dialysis three times a week could benefit from overnight dialysis five or six nights a week, according to Geelong Hospital nephrology director Associate Professor John Agar.
“In our experience, overnight dialysis delivers a much gentler dialysis process with slower flows, slower but more efficient waste and fluid removal rates, and less dialysis symptoms such as abnormally low blood pressure, cramps, headaches and dizziness,” he said.
The Barwon Health Renal Service Program won a prestigious AHA-Baxter Innovation Award in 2003 for this inventive home-based nocturnal haemodialysis program.
