Peritoneal Dialysis offers medical benefits
For starters, PD better
preserves your remaining kidney function and patients with remaining kidney
function may experience health benefits including reduced medications
3 and
better nutritional status
4. (Both of which help PD patients lead more
active lives.) PD patients have been shown to be more likely to have a
transplant when compared to HD patients
5. Recent studies have
also suggested that PD can offer improved early survival (within the first two years) compared to hemodialysis.
6 Overall, long term survival has been shown to be similar for patients treated with PD and patients treated with HD.
6
Please remember that every patient is different and that survival rates may vary
significantly from person to person depending on age, physical condition and
many other factors.
You keep your dialysis care team
Even though PD takes place at home, you
don't have to do it alone. You will go through as many days of training as you
need to feel comfortable with the process and ready to go home and do it
yourself. After starting PD, your dialysis care team doesn’t leave. You will
still have monthly appointments with your nephrologist. And if you have
questions, or need help with your equipment and supplies, your social worker,
nurse, dietitian and technical support will always be just a phone call
away.
Peritoneal
Dialysis (PD) Care Team