Keeping Home Dialysis Patients at Home

Home dialysis, whether peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis (HD), has many purported benefits. Specifically, in observational studies, home HD (HHD) is associated with significant survival benefits, although dissecting true benefits from possible selection bias, such that healthier patients may be electing HHD, is always difficult. A recent Australian and New Zealand analysis, based on registry information but carefully controlled for biases, demonstrated significantly improved survival for long-hours HHD patients compared with conventionally treated center-based HD patients,1 and the FHN (Frequent Hemodialysis Network) trials demonstrated improved outcomes for (in-center) short-daily HD compared to conventional treatment.