MedTrace Logo

Dialysis Less Frequently in the Elderly

NCT07738731 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 210

Last updated 2026-07-31

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Many people who have kidney failure require hemodialysis treatments to stay alive. Hemodialysis is a procedure that cleans the blood of the toxins and fluids that build up when kidneys don't work. Most patients receive hemodialysis treatment three times every week and each treatment lasts 4 hours. These patients spend 156 days per year receiving hemodialysis treatments. This is a very large time burden which has a tremendous impact on well-being and life satisfaction. Current usual approach of prescribing three hemodialysis treatments per week is not based on good studies and assumes that all people need the same number of hemodialysis treatments per week regardless of their age, values, life expectancy or other health conditions. Over time, increasingly more elderly people are needing to start hemodialysis treatments. The investigators have conducted a preliminary study that shows that patients who are 70 years of age or older can do well when only receiving only two hemodialysis treatments per week. In this preliminary study, receiving two hemodialysis treatments per week was no different than three hemodialysis treatments per week with regards to important safety measures including blood values and management of body fluid levels. The investigators now propose to carry out a much larger study in many centers across Canada that will compare two times per week hemodialysis treatments to three times per week hemodialysis treatments in elderly patients who have reached kidney failure and are beginning their hemodialysis journey. The investigators want to know if receiving hemodialysis treatments twice per week increases the number of days that a patient is able to spend at home without increasing rates of hospitalization or death compared to receiving hemodialysis treatments three times per week. The investigators also want to know if this is better for people's quality of life, safe, less expensive for the health care system and friendlier to the environment. The results of this study will help elderly patients needing to start hemodialysis treatments, medical care teams who help make decisions about how many hemodialysis treatments per week are necessary as well as kidney organizations that oversee kidney care for patients in Canada and around the world.

Conditions

  • Hemodialysis
  • End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD)

Interventions

OTHER

Twice weekly hemodialysis

Twice weekly hemodialysis

OTHER

Thrice weekly hemodialysis treatment

This arm will receive three hemodialysis treatments per week

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Queen's University

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
70 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-10-31
Primary Completion
2031-10-31
Completion
2031-10-31

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07738731 on ClinicalTrials.gov