Does Incremental Initiation of Haemodialysis Preserve Native Kidney Function?

Summary

Patients who start haemodialysis usually retain some natural kidney function for months or years after starting dialysis. Even a small amount of this natural kidney function can be helpful in reducing the need for dietary and fluid restriction. There is also good evidence that retaining a small amount of natural kidney function may provide a survival benefit for patients on dialysis.

Most patients who commence haemodialysis start three times per week for 3.5-4 hours per session, irrespective of the amount of natural kidney function they may have. An alternative approach used in some kidney units is to take account of the natural kidney function in prescribing the amount of dialysis. This may allow patients to start treatment needing to spend less time on dialysis or even to start just twice weekly. The amount of dialysis can be adjusted over time as natural kidney function declines. This is called "incremental haemodialysis". Both of these approaches are considered to be standard care although it is not known which approach is more beneficial to patients.

There are some suggestions that the frequency of dialysis may influence the rate of decline of natural kidney function but this need to be tested in a large randomised study. To inform the design of such a study, a smaller scale feasibility study is required.

We intend to randomise fifty new starters on haemodialysis with adequate natural kidney function into two groups - a group who will have dialysis prescribed in the standard fashion - three times weekly for 3.5-4 hours per session or a group who will have an incremental start beginning with twice weekly treatment. We will investigate how many patients have sufficient natural kidney function to be eligible, whether patients are willing to participate and continue in the study, compare the rate of loss of kidney function between groups, and ascertain whether this individualised dialysis approach is less intrusive to patients. The results will be used to design a larger definitive study.

Conditions

• Kidney Failure
• Dialysis

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Standard Haemodialysis

Thrice weekly dialysis.

PROCEDURE

Incremental dialysis

Individualised dialysis dose according to native kidney function.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Hertfordshire

  collaborator OTHER

• East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

  lead OTHER_GOV

Principal Investigators

• Dr Enric Vilar · East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-01-08

Primary Completion

2019-01-02

Completion

2019-03-02

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations