Is single-needle hemodialysis still a good treatment in end-stage renal disease?
GROUND: Single-needle (SN) dialysis has been accepted as one of the alternative modes of renal replacement therapy. Despite its advantages it is not widely practiced due to the belief of underdialysis by this technique. However, it is used routinely in many hemodialysis units. We therefore aimed to study the efficacy and determine parameters that reflect the dialysis efficiency. The complications and adverse events were also evaluated. The times required to achieve maximal adequacy of dialysis were compared between 4-, 4.5-and 5.0-hour dialysis sessions. METHODS: Ten stable end-stage renal disease patients who regularly used the standard hemodialysis technique with double-needle (DN) dialysis were switched to SN dialysis for three consecutive dialysis session times (4, 4.5 and 5.0 h, respectively) for 3 weeks in each period. The following parameters including Kt/V, percent recirculation, calcium, phosphorus, hematocrit, and LDH level were studied at the start and end of each period. RE
