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Take Steps to Keep Your Heart Healthy on Dialysis

Heart disease is very common in people with kidney disease or kidney failure. In fact, it is the leading cause of death in people with kidney failure. But there are things you can do to keep your heart and blood vessels healthy. If you already have heart disease? You can take steps to keep it from getting worse.

What is heart disease?

Heart disease describes a number of disorders that can affect the heart...

Plasmapheresis and Blood-type Incompatible Kidney Transplant

Until recently, a transplant patient could only receive an organ from someone with a compatible blood type. An organ from someone with an incompatible blood type would be perceived as foreign and vulnerable to attack by the recipient's natural antibodies. Now, through a process called plasmapheresis, a recipient can receive a kidney from a donor of a different blood type. This procedure is currently being provided at a growing number of...

What You Should Know About Infectious Diseases: A Guide for Hemodialysis Patients and Their Families

As a hemodialysis patient, you want to learn all you can about your treatment and what you can do to ensure your health is at its best. One important area you should know about involves infectious diseases. These are diseases that happen when harmful germs get into your body and make you ill. Kidney failure interferes with your body's natural defense system (immune system), making it easier for you to get some types of diseases through your...

Dialysis

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Stopping or Not Starting Dialysis

I’ve heard different terms for not receiving dialysis. What do they mean?

You may have heard of stopping or not starting dialysis. This is also called “conservative care” or “medical management.” This type of care can meet different goals depending on your specific needs and overall health. It can involve managing symptoms with certain medicines and ...

Peritoneal Dialysis

Before dialysis was available, total kidney failure meant death. Today, people with kidney failure can live because of treatments such as dialysis and kidney transplant.

Heart Health: Ten Tips to Keep Your Heart Healthy on Dialysis

People with kidney disease or kidney failure are at risk for heart disease. In fact, it is very common. These ten tips can help you lower your risk for getting heart disease —or help keep heart disease from getting worse.

Tip 1: Control Blood Sugar If You Have Diabetes

Check your blood sugar level as often as your healthcare provider recommends
Follow your treatment plan of medications, diet,...

Your Dialysis Care Team

Good health care is always a team effort—especially for people with chronic kidney disease. This fact sheet tells you about the health professionals who care for dialysis patients. For information about the health care professionals who care for transplant recipients, see “Your Transplant Care Team.”

You and your family are important members of the dialysis care team. You...

The Buttonhole Technique

What is the buttonhole technique?

The buttonhole technique is a way to "cannulate," which means "to insert dialysis needles." Instead of sharp, pointed needles, dull needles are placed into the exact same holes on your fistula every time you have dialysis. Inserting the needles in the same holes creates a "tunneled track" for the needle. Over time this may be less painful because you do not have to use sharp needles to make new...