Hemodialysis

Hemodialysis is a procedure to remove excess water and harmful chemicals and wastes from blood. Hemodialysis helps clean up the blood when the kidneys cannot function properly, such as in acute kidney failure. It takes 4 ? 5 hours to continuously pump the blood via a special vascular access (?shunt?) into an artificial kidney (also called dialyzer) where it gets cleaned. The clean blood from the dialyzer returns to the body through a vein.

According to the individual needs of the patient, different procedures are applied:

• Hemodialysis
• Hemofiltration
• Hemodiafiltration

The dialyzers used in our centres are produced by the two companies Gambro ® and Nikkiso ®

CAPD (Continuous ambulant peritoneal dialysis = peritoneum dialysis)

The peritoneal dialysis is a variation of the hemodialysis. Hemodialysis requires a machine to clean the blood. For the peritoneal dialysis your peritoneum (a thin membrane that lines the abdominal cavity) serves as a filter membrane so that the blood can be cleaned inside your body without a machine. 

The peritoneum, which allows waste products and extra fluid to pass from your blood into the dialysis solution, works as a natural membrane according to the principle of the osmosis: A soft tube called a catheter is used to fill your abdomen with a cleansing liquid called dialysis solution. The solution contains a sugar called dextrose that will pull wastes and extra fluid into the abdominal cavity. These wastes and fluid then leave your body when the dialysis solution is drained. The used solution, containing wastes and extra fluid, is then thrown away. A typical schedule calls for four exchanges a day, each of 4 to 6 hours.