Living with end-stage renal disease is challenging and requires a great deal of self-management, but little is known about the experiences of patients and staff around the subject. We held six focus groups in three hemodialysis units, each unit hosting 1 staff and 1 patient focus group. A total of 15 staff members and 15 patients participated. We employed thematic analysis using a priori and em...

OBJECTIVE To determine the cause of an outbreak of acute illness and death in a long-term hemodialysis unit. DESIGN A retrospective cohort and case-control study of patients receiving hemodialysis and a laboratory study of a model deionization system to purify water for hemodialysis. SETTING An outpatient hemodialysis unit of a university hospital. PATIENTS 12 patients who became severely...

AIM To obtain a causal relationship between changes in plasma sodium levels and increased extracellular fluid volume between post-hemodialysis and pre-hemodialysis on the following day or plasma sodium serves as a predictor of extracellular fluid volume. METHODS The study was conducted on 40 subjects randomly selected from the 247 chronic hemodialysis patients in Hemodialysis Unit of Nephrolo...

Studies of hemodialysis patients have shown a U-shaped association between systolic blood pressure (SBP) and mortality. These studies have largely relied on dialysis-unit SBP measures and have not evaluated whether this U-shape also exists in advanced chronic kidney disease, before starting hemodialysis. We determined the association between SBP and mortality at advanced chronic kidney disease ...

In July 2008, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) received reports of three hemodialysis patients seroconverting from anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) negative to anti-HCV positive in a New York City hemodialysis unit during the preceding 6 months. NYSDOH conducted patient interviews and made multiple visits to the hemodialysis unit to observe hemodialysis treatments, assess infection ...

UNLABELLED The free-living amoebae (FLA) are ubiquitous and opportunistic protozoa. They can induce human and animal diseases. The aim of our study was to detect the FLA and Acanthamoeba genus in the hydraulic system of an hemodialysis unit. It was a prospective study of 46 water samples. The first collect (23) was before cleaning and after the haemodialysis sessions and the second (23) after c...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Despite the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease among hemodialysis patients, the relationship between age and blood pressure (BP) is not well understood. It was postulated that the relationship of BP to age differs among hemodialysis patients versus the general population and that there is significant variability in dialysis unit BP measurements. DESIGN, SETTIN...

Biofilms have been observed in the fluid pathways of hemodialysis machines. The impacts of four biocides used for the disinfection of hemodialysis systems were tested against Candida parapsilosis sensu stricto and Candida orthopsilosis biofilms generated by isolates obtained from a hydraulic circuit that were collected in a hemodialysis unit. Acetic acid was shown to be the most effective agent...

Patient safety culture is critical to the achievement of patient safety. In 2014, a landmark national study was conducted to investigate patient safety culture in nephrology nurse practice settings. In this secondary analysis of data from that study, we report the status of patient safety culture by primary work unit (chronic hemodialysis unit, acute hemodialysis unit, peritoneal dialysis unit)...

The number of hemodialysis patients and dialysis facilities is increasing each year, but there are no surveillance programs validating that the services and equipment of each hemodialysis unit meet specified safety and quality standards. There is a concern that excessive competition and illegal activities committed by some dialysis facilities may violate patients' right to health. Contrastingly...