Why is 6 nights/week better than alternate night NHHD and alternate night NHHD better than 3 nights/week NHHD?
First, lets deal with why the 3 night/week NHHD option is not as good as the alternate night (7 nights/fortnight or 3.5 nights/week) option and I feel very, very strongly about this There is no question in my view that a rolling 2nd nightly program is better than the weekly routine of Mon/Wed/Fri or Tue/Thu/Sat HD (in any format). I believe (and there is good evidence to back up this belief) that the ‘long break’ of 3/week HD really stresses and stretches the circulation and the heart. This is really deleterious in the long term! If is can be avoided by switching to every 2nd night at least – then I believe it is wrong not to make the switch. As for 6/week NHHD option, again I believe (and again there is evidence to back this belief) that 6/week is better than every second night … in essence, the more the better. I believe (as do others) that 6/week NHHD is the ‘Rolls Royce” of available dialysis modalities and anything less is lesser … though I think it is fair to say that the pot
