Longer intervals between dialysis not good

We noticed this news item popping up in many news sites, based on a recent research article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The doctors involved looked at a large number of patients (32,065 to be exact) from the End Stage Renal Disease Clinical Performance Measures Project - a project that gives a representative sample of patients on hemodialysis three times a week. They found that there was an increased risk of heart problems and a low tolerance of metabolic deviations from the normal range.

They suggest that with three day a week dialysis - eg Monday, Wednesday, Friday - the longer gap between the Friday and Monday treatments may be a bit too long. Evidence showed that death rates and hospital admittance rates were higher on the day after the two day gap than at other times. This suggests that the higher level of accumulated toxins at that point in the treatment may be causing these patients problems.

Dialysis patients and their family should perhaps be on the look out for problems and poorer health at the longer gap point in their weekly schedule.

Inverness Dialysis Patient's Canoe Trip

Martin MacRae doesn't think dialysis should tie him to a sick bed, so he has decided to show the freedom gained from his new portable dialysis machine and canoe the breadth of Scotland via the Caledonian Canal. He will be camping at a series of rest points during his six day trip and will have his dialysis each evening for three hours - in his tent!

There are only two of these small units available in Scotland on the NHS, while there are around 70 in England, and thousands in the USA. So Martin is hoping that the sponsorship he has attracted will raise money to purchase more for the renal unit at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.

Why not support Martin in his venture, by going to Just give to Martin MacRae and donating something, anything.

And wouldn't it be a nice gesture the unit's manufacturers donated a machine... (Hint, HINT, Very Strong Hint)

This was first spotted on the BBC News page on the 30th August, 2011, and an update in the Inverness Courier the next day reported that he successfully completed the first stage. So hurry up and donate!