Home hemodialysis (HHD) is the provision of hemodialysis to purify the blood of a person whose kidneys are not working normally, in their own home. One advantage to doing dialysis at home is that it can be done more frequently and slowly, which reduces the "washed out" feeling and other symptoms caused by rapid ultrafiltration, and it can often be done at night, while the person is sleeping.

People on home hemodialysis are followed by a nephrologist who writes the dialysis prescription and they rely on the support of a dialysis unit for back-up treatments and case management. Studies show that HHD improves patients' sense of well-being; the more they know about and control their own treatment the better they are likely to do on dialysis.

HHD was introduced in the 1960s as a way to conserve scarce healthcare resources.

Schedules

There are three basic schedules of HHD and these are differentiated by the length and frequency of dialysis and the time of day the dialysis is carried out. They are as follows:

  • Conventional HHD – done three times a week for three to five hours. It is like in-centre hemodialysis (IHD), but done at home. Some patients utilize a modified conventional "EOD" (Every Other Day) strategy in which treatments are performed an average of 3.5 times a week. It is generally accepted that the "3 day gap" that occurs once a week in conventional HHD on the normal 3x/week schedule increases risk to the patient.
  • Short daily home hemodialysis (SDHHD) – done five to seven times a week, for two to four hours per session.
  • Nocturnal home hemodialysis (NHHD) – done three to seven times per week at night during sleep, for six to ten hours.

Thus an NHHD schedule results in a larger dose of hemodialysis per week, as do some SDHHD. More total time dialyzing, shorter periods between treatments and the fact that fluid removal speeds can be lower (thus reducing the symptoms resulting from rapid ultrafiltration), accounts for the advantages of these schedules over conventional ones.

A frequent NHHD schedule has been shown to have better clinical outcomes than a conventional schedule and evidence is mounting that clinical outcomes are improved with each increase in treatment frequency.

Differences between home hemodialysis schedules

  • When compared with the other schedules, nocturnal dialysis results in reduced strain on the heart during dialysis. The ultrafiltration rate (UFR) in nocturnal dialysis is lower than in CHD (and SDHHD)
  • Frequent nocturnal hemodialysis can improve left ventricular mass measures, reduce the need for blood pressure medications, improve some measures of mineral metabolism, and improve selected measures of quality of life.
  • When compared with other schedules, nocturnal dialysis results in higher clearance of large and medium-sized molecules (that are diffusion-limited).
  • Nocturnal dialysis and SDHHD treatment regimens provide a higher dialysis dose; they have a higher a std Kt/V and HDP than IHD treatment regimens.
  • Short dialysis (at home) five times a week is thought to reduce renal osteodystrophy.
  • SDHHD and nocturnal dialysis avoid large fluid shifts typical in hemodialysis performed in a healthcare setting after dialysis sessions. These fluid shifts can cause nausea, cramping, and 'wash-out'.

Advantages of nocturnal home hemodialysis

thumb|200px|Hemodialysis while sleeping

  • Better blood pressure management—less need for blood pressure medications.
  • Avoidance of intradialytic hypotension (i.e. low blood pressure during dialysis), something relatively common in IHD.
  • More energy and less 'wash-out' after treatment.
  • Decreased prevalence of sleep apnea or improvement in severe cases of sleep apnea – sleep better.
  • Less expensive overall for the health system due to lower rates of hospitalization and savings on nursing.
  • Less dietary restrictions—e.g., phosphate binders, kidney failure food restrictions.
  • More control over the dialysis treatment schedule and greater life satisfaction.
  • Live longer, according to a case-cohort study.
  • Cardiovascular disease in ESRD patients is the leading cause of mortality. Nocturnal hemodialysis is thought to improve ejection fraction (an important measure of cardiac function) and lead to a regression in left ventricular hypertrophy. A benefit of 6x/week nocturnal hemodialysis on left ventricular hypertrophy was demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial.

Disadvantages of nocturnal home hemodialysis

  • Training is usually done during business hours, as often as five times a week. Training can take from 2 to 8 weeks at which time one is dialyzed incenter, often in a separate home hemodialysis training unit.
  • Introducing dialysis into the home will impact everyone in the home, for good and bad.
  • Space is needed for the dialysis machine and supplies.
  • One may face increased utility costs. (Some utilities have accommodations available)
  • Supply management may require time during business hours e.g. to receive deliveries, to drop off blood draws.
  • May require trip to center once a month for iron and case management.
  • If nocturnal dialysis is chosen some night's sleep can be disrupted due to machine alarms. Experience from Lynchburg suggests it happens once every 10 days for people using a fistula and 1-2 times per night if using a catheter.

Barriers to home hemodialysis

Knowledge barriers

  • Lack of awareness amongst patients – most patients with kidney disease in the USA are not informed of home hemodialysis as a treatment option for end-stage renal disease. One US study found that 36% of patients did not have contact with a nephrologist until less than 4 months prior to their first dialysis session and that only 12% of patients were offered home hemodialysis as a treatment option.
  • Lack of awareness for nephrologists. The lack of familiarity with home hemodialysis makes them less likely to offer it to suitable patients.

Patient factors: in general

  • Disability or frailty.
  • Patient fear of needles/self-cannulation.
  • Patient belief that they will get better care in hospital.
  • Have the ability and motivation to learn to carry out the process.
  • Possible cognitive executive functioning issues associated with uremia condition of end state kidney disease. This may affect memory, ability to plan effectively, and keeping to schedules.
  • High levels of depression and anxiety are also typically associated with end state kidney disease and the resulting life style changes, also contributing to reduced cognitive and behavioral functioning, and negative illness schemas. These factors may influence both motivation and capacity for adherence/compliance to regimes.

Patient factors: addressing dialysis non-adherence

  • Cognitive behavioural therapy has been shown to be effective with dialysis patients to address levels of depression, specific phobias/fears, and to decrease levels of anxiety.
  • Use of psychoeducation to assist patient and carers understanding and insights into non-adherence issues.

Health care funding models

  • Incenter dialysis and home hemodialysis are reimbursed to exactly the same amounts in the United States under the ESRD program. From CMS's point of view any form of dialysis is still more expensive than renal transplantation if looked at over a three-year period. A good kidney transplant (one that lasts five years) remains the cheapest long term renal replacement therapy.
  • In many jurisdictions doctors are not compensated to facilitate/encourage home dialysis; in the USA most kidney doctors are not paid for discussing different treatment options with their patients. and Hokkaidō all have a claim.

The Hokkaidō group was slightly ahead of the others, with Nosé's publication of his PhD thesis (in 1962), which described treating patients outside of the hospital for acute kidney injury due to drug overdoses. In 1963, he attempted to publish these cases in the ASAIO Journal but was unsuccessful, which was later described in the ASAIO Journal when people were invited to write about unconventional/crazy rejected papers. That these treatments took place in people's homes is hotly disputed by Shaldon and he has accused Nosé of a faulty memory and not being completely honest, as allegedly revealed by some shared Polish Vodka, many years earlier.

The Seattle group (originally the Seattle Artificial Kidney Center, later the Northwest Kidney Centers) started their home program in July 1964. It was inspired by the fifteen-year-old daughter of a collaborator's friend, who went into kidney failure due to lupus erythematosus, and had been denied access to dialysis by their patient selection committee. Dialysis treatment at home was the only alternative and managed to extend her life another four years. Dr. Chris Blagg has stated that the first training predated the establishment of the home program: the "first home patient wasn't part of our program at all, he was president of a big Indian corporation, lived in Madras, and he came to Seattle just before I came in '63. He came in early '63, again, with his doctor and his wife and Dr. Scribner trained them to do dialysis at home and they went home to Madras."

In September 1964 the London group (led by Shaldon) started dialysis treatment at home. In the late 1960s, Shaldon introduced HHD in Germany.

Home hemodialysis machines have changed considerably since the inception of the practice. Nosé's machine consisted of a coil (to transport the blood) placed in a household (electric) washing machine filled with dialysate. It did not have a pump and blood transport through the coil was dependent on the patient's heart. The dialysate was circulated by turning on the washing machine (which mixed the dialysate and resulted in some convection) and Nosé's experiments show that this indeed improved the clearance of toxins.

In the USA there has been a large decline in home hemodialysis over the past 30 years. In the early 1970s, approximately 40% of patients used it. Today, it is used by approximately 0.4%. in the UK and grew popular in some centers, such as the Northwest Kidney Centers, but then declined in the 1970s (coinciding with the decline in HHD). Since the early 1990s, NHHD has become more popular again. Uldall and Pierratos started a program in Toronto, which advocated long night-time treatments (and coined the term 'nocturnal home hemodialysis') and Agar