Online haemodiafiltration therapy to treat chronic kidney disease. First national experience in the university hospital

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease has an estimated prevalence of 6.5% to 8% in adults older than 18 years old in Uruguay. Despite efforts to make an early diagnosis and delay its progression, a percentage of patients require renal replacement therapy (RRT) with dialysis, the annual incidence rate being 166 patients per million population. Regardless of improvements in nephrology care and hemodialysis techniques, annual mortality ratex for this technique is high in our country (16.5%) and around the world. In order to improve these aspects, different dialysis techniques associating convection as a strategy to purify larger molecules that are rarely purified in conventional hemodialysis have been tried out. Online haemodiafiltration (OL-HDF) is a convective technique. When used as a chronic RRT it is associated to a 30-35% reduction in mortality compared to conventional hemodialysis. In 2014 this technique was introduced in the University Hospital, being it the first center that offered it as chronic renal replacement therapy. The implementation process implied changes in infrastructure (dialysis computer screens, water treatment center), the training of human resources, changes in the operation system and programmed microbiological controls.
A systematic quality control and the different studies conducted in this 5-year period have proved it is a safe technique that removes average size solutes and reduces the erythropoietin requirements. This technique is still not funded by the health system, what may result in an obstacle for it to be applied nationally.
This study reviews the main features of haemodiafiltration, its benefits when compared to conventional hemodialysis and the process needed to implement the technique, along with initial results in the University Hospital.