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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 After six months, those receiving nighttime treatments had better heart health, blood pressure and some measures of quality of life than those in conventional treatment.
And Turkish researchers found that eight-hour nighttime treatments performed three times a week cut the death risk of patients by 80 percent compared with conventional four-hour treatments done three times a week. The findings were presented at last year's annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology.
Dr. Michael V. Rocco, a professor of internal medicine-nephrology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., says doctors may know more about the effects of more frequent dialysis in the next few years as a result of two National Institutes of Health-sponsored clinical trials.
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In one study, patients will receive treatment at a dialysis center on a conventional, three-times-a-week basis or on a frequent, six-times-a-week schedule. The other study will compare nocturnal hemodialysis administered six times a week for at least six hours with conventional, three-times-a-week home hemodialysis.
"These studies on daily and nocturnal [hemodialysis] will provide us with far more dependable information than we now have with observational studies alone," Rocco said.
At present, fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. dialysis patients -- roughly 3,000 people -- do home hemodialysis, Blagg noted.
Several factors are contributing to the lack of growth in nocturnal hemodialysis in the United States, Rocco noted. These include a lack of training in home hemodialysis, especially nocturnal dialysis, making physicians reluctant to recommend it to patients. Funding for home hemodialysis training is inadequate, and physicians and staff aren't promoting it, he added.
But Congress passed legislation last year that could influence the popularity of that option. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, patients with chronic kidney disease must be counseled about their treatment options. This provision is intended to give patients an opportunity to participate in choosing the therapy that they receive.
"I don't know how much difference that will make, but it's a step in the right direction," Blagg said.
More information
The National Kidney Foundation has more on home hemodialysis.
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