title: More frequent hemodialysis: back to the future?
abstract: An increase in the length of the standard in-center hemodialysis treatment by 30 to 45 minutes per session was not associated with an improvement in mortality in long-term hemodialysis patients enrolled in the HEMO study. Testing the possibility that delivering still higher doses of hemodialysis may have a beneficial effect on patient outcomes will require the use of more frequent hemodialysis or a much longer duration for each dialysis session. "Short-daily hemodialysis," actually 6 times per week hemodialysis for 1.5 to 3 hours per session, can provide some increase in small molecule clearance as measured by urea kinetics. "Long nocturnal daily hemodialysis," actually 6 times per week hemodialysis for 6 to 8 hours per session, provides a significant increase in both small-molecular-weight and large-molecular-weight clearance and often alleviates the need to take phosphate binders. The National Institutes of Health is sponsoring 2 clinical trials via the Frequent Hemodialysis Network to determine the impact of these 2 modalities on intermediate outcomes, compared with standard 3-times-per-week hemodialysis.
authors.affiliation: Section on Nephrology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1053, USA. mocco@wfubmc.edu
authors.forename: Michael V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Rocco
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006437:Hemodialysis, Home / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome