End-Stage Kidney Patients Require Hemodialysis Therapy Full Start

Abstract

Recently the concept that prescription of chronic hemodialysis (HD) start should be tailored based on residual renal function (RRF) and urine output (UO) has been revived from the past and called infrequent or incremental dialysis. It mainly consists in prescribing 1 or 2 HD sessions per week instead of what has become the standard thrice-weekly HD. It is both surprising and fascinating that almost 60 years after the first end-stage kidney disease patient was treated by Scribner et al. [Trans Am Soc Artif Intern Organs 1960; 6: 114–122], the nephrology community still questions the best way to start HD therapy. This comforting process is the result of pieces of evidence accumulated with time such as that RRF is associated with better outcomes that starting HD therapy favors the loss of RRF and/or UO and also results in a high rate of deaths in the first weeks of HD therapy. Through this review, we support the idea that when the decision to start HD therapy is made, ideally with the full collaboration of the patient, it is necessary to be efficient to alleviate uremic symptoms, to correct the fluid overload and to allow a full recovery from the uremic state associated with the late stages of non-dialysis chronic kidney disease.