Overnight dialysis better life saver for kidney patients: Study

Washington, November 8: Kidney patients who receive eight-hour dialysis a night, three times a week are at significantly reduced risk of dying from the disease than those who receive conventional, four-hour dialysis three times a week, a new study suggests.

The novel study, led by Ercan Ok, Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, states that overnight dialysis may reduce the risk of death for kidney patients by nearly 80 percent, compared to traditional daytime dialysis - sometimes called hemodialysis.

"Unfortunately, the mortality rate of patients treated by conventional four hours, three times weekly hemodialysis remains unacceptably high, despite several improvements in dialysis technology and general medical care," said Dr. Ok.

"As an alternative, more frequent and/or longer hemodialysis regimens seem promising," he added.

To reach their findings, Dr. Ok and colleagues looked at 224 Turkish dialysis patients, with average age of 45, who were switched to overnight dialysis. They treated the study patients with eight hours, three times a week dialysis for a year and then compared the overnight group to patients given the normal course of four-hour dialysis three days a week.

After a year-long follow-up, the researchers found that patients who received 8-hour night-time dialysis had a 78 percent reduced risk for death compared to those who maintained the typical regimen of four hours of treatment, three days a week.

In addition, the overnight dialysis patients experienced significant improvements in blood pressure control, and reported increased appetite, desirable weight gain, and a boost in blood protein levels.

"We expect that these data would be convincing to the whole society -- including physicians, patients, health authorities, and social security institutions -- for the necessity of longer hemodialysis in order to improve high mortality and morbidity," said Ok.

Supported by a grant from the European Nephrology Dialysis Institution, the study was presented Nov. 7 at the American Society of Nephrology's annual meeting in Philadelphia.

National Kidney Federation (NKF) describes dialysis on its Website as a treatment that does some of the things done by healthy kidneys. It is needed when your own kidneys can no longer take care of your body's needs.

A person needs dialysis when he develops end stage kidney failure - usually by the time he looses about 85 to 90 percent of his kidney function.

Like healthy kidneys, dialysis keeps patient’s body in balance. Dialysis removes waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body as well as keeps a safe level of certain chemicals in patient’s blood, such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate and helps to control blood pressure.