LONDON, ON - Seventy percent of Canadian kidney failure patients undergo hemodialysis, a process of removing waste products from the blood. Surprising enough, over the past 40 years health care providers have failed to see significant outcome improvements. Patients experience considerable complications and low quality of life, and the mortality rate has averaged 18-20% per year. However, there is good news for patients dependent on hemodialysis. Two recent studies conducted in part by Lawson Health Research Institute’s Dr. Robert Lindsay and colleagues shows that doubling the frequency of dialysis increases patient survival rate and leads to improved quality of life.
Traditional dialysis consists of three treatments per week of 3 ½ -4 ½ hours each. Both studies, one of which was conducted in-hospital and the other in-home, compare this traditional method against experimental procedures of 6 sessions per week. One used 6-8 hour gentle treatments while sleeping at home, the other short (2 to 3 hours) high efficiency treatments daytime in center. After the 12-month long study, results indicate significant outcome improvements for patients undergoing the more frequent treatments. According to Dr. Lindsay, these findings have proven to be a landmark in hemodialysis research.
The study was conducted through the Frequent Hemodialysis Network (FHN), of which Dr. Lindsay is a member. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the FHN is a consortium established in response to a number of recent observational studies that suggest more frequent hemodialysis leads to increased patient health, well-being, and quality of life. Overall, their goal is to improve the outcomes of hemodialysis treatment. In addition to Dr. Lindsay, Lawson’s Drs. Rita Suri, and Amit Garg have also been major contributors and, as a group, were the only team to contribute to both studies.
“These studies may lead to major changes in how hemodialysis is provided,” Lindsay explains. “Our next steps are to act as advocates for our dialysis patients and to have treatment providers such as OHIP establish the appropriate funding methodologies to allow these treatments.”
The study is published in The New England Journal of Medicine at http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1001593.
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Lawson Health Research Institute. As the research institute of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care, London, and working in partnership with The University of Western Ontario, Lawson Health Research Institute is committed to furthering scientific knowledge to advance health care around the world. www.lawsonresearch.com
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Sonya Gilpin
Communications & Public Relations
Lawson Health Research Institute
519-685-8500 ext. 75852
sonya.gilpin@lawsonresearch.com
Julia Capaldi
Communications & Public Relations
Lawson Health Research Institute
519-685-8500 ext. 75615 Pager 10699
Julia.capaldi@lawsonresearch.com