Home Dialysis Specialist
Southland Renal Medical Group
Nephrologists located in the Greater Long Beach and Orange County, CA Area
Home dialysis has some definite advantages as it’s much easier to work your life around dialysis when you can do it at home while you sleep. It’s also easier to clean your blood more frequently, which is a great boost to your health. The team at Southland Renal Medical Center can teach you everything you need to know to perform home dialysis, and they’re always available for support at their kidney treatment centers in Long Beach, Downey, Fountain Valley, and Los Alamitos, California. Schedule an appointment online or by phone today if you’re interested in home dialysis.
Home Dialysis Q & A
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a treatment that takes over for your kidneys when they’re so damaged by chronic kidney disease (CKD) that they can’t filter enough wastes out of your blood. There are two basic types of dialysis, hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis:
Hemodialysis
During hemodialysis, tubes are inserted into a blood vessel access point created in your arm, then the tubes are connected to the dialysis machine. Blood flows through one tube and into the machine, the machine filters the waste, then the blood returns to your body through the other tube.
Peritoneal dialysis
After a soft, plastic tube or catheter is surgically implanted in your stomach or chest, peritoneal dialysis is done by filling your abdomen with fluid and letting it stay in your abdomen for a while. The fluid pulls wastes out of your blood, then the fluid is drained, carrying away the waste.
How frequently do I need to perform home hemodialysis?
You can do home hemodialysis three ways:
- Standard home hemodialysis: Three times weekly for three to five hours
- Short daily hemodialysis: At least five days each week for two to four hours at a time
- Nightly home hemodialysis: Between three and six times a week at night during sleep
With nightly home dialysis, you can sleep while the hemodialysis machine cleans your blood. The team at Southland Renal Medical Group teach you how to set up your at-home treatment, put in the needles, use the machine, and take care of your vascular access. You’ll also learn how to tape your needles and place an alarm under your access arm that will wake you if any blood leaks out while you sleep.
It takes about 30 minutes to set it up at night, then you let the machine do the work while you sleep. You gain optimal blood cleaning without taking time out of your day.
What are the benefits of nightly home dialysis?
Getting seven to nine hours of dialysis at night lets you take the process at a slow pace that’s gentle on your heart. Longer nightly dialysis may even prolong your life. Studies suggest you may live about three times longer than patients who get their hemodialysis in a clinic.
With this type of dialysis, you can also easily filter your blood more frequently than you would if you have to travel to a medical office. Frequent dialysis helps lower your blood pressure, maintain a healthy heart, boost your energy, and improve your quality of life.
How can I use peritoneal dialysis at home?
When you do peritoneal dialysis at home, you can get a cycler machine to do the fluid exchange at night while you sleep or by hand during the day. To perform daytime ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, you inject the fluid into your abdomen and go about your daily routine before draining the fluid. You’ll need to do this three to five times a day for 30-40 minutes each time, or according to your doctor’s instructions.
To learn more about home dialysis, call Southland Renal Medical Group or schedule an appointment online today.