Are patients with cardiac problems good candidates for NHHD?
Much has been written on the advantages to the heart and to the blood vessels of both: (1) ‘enhanced frequency’ HD (usually known as short daily HD and commonly performed for 2 – 2.5 hrs every day in a dialysis centre) and (2) ‘enhanced frequency and time’ HD (nocturnal home-based HD either 6 nights/ week or alternate nights/week) George Ting (San Francisco) has the best experience and data I know of regarding short daily HD and there is no doubt that this HD method offers superior outcomes compared to conventional HD, especially for patients with poorly contacting hearts where there is a low ejection fraction (the volume of blood ejected by each beat of the heart). The reasons for this are explained in the Dialysis Issues section of my website. Simply put, there is less expansion and contraction of the blood volume (there is less fluid taken in by mouth) if dialysis is done every day and less strain put onto an already over stressed/stretched heart. Though at first it would seem that
