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Home Dialysis Therapies
Lori Harwood, MSc, RN, CNeph(C)
Rosemary Leitch, RN, CNeph(C)
Home
dialysis is an optimal option for patients requiring renal replacement
therapy. These therapies are more cost effective than in-center
therapies, and the benefits to patients are well documented. Despite
this evidence for these therapies, home hemodialysis (HHD) is often
only available as a secondary treatment choice and with little support
in traditional hemodialysis (HD) centers (Branson & Moran, 2004).
It is timely to include a chapter on home therapies in this textbook,
as there is a renewed interest in longer HD times, more frequent HD,
and home modalities. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is an extremely important
home dialysis modality and is discussed in this chapter but it is
detailed elsewhere in this textbook. The focus of this chapter is
mainly on HHD.
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