Hemodialysis Adequacy : A Review

Ankit N Metha MD, Andrew Z Fenves MD
Dialysis & Transplantation Vol 39 Issue 1, Pages 20-22, Jan 2010

Abstract


“Adequate dialysis” is interpreted as the amount of dialysis required to keep a patient alive and relatively asymptomatic. Since the inception of hemodialysis, there have been numerous approaches to quantify the delivered dialysis dose in a reproducible manner, and to link the dialysis dose with clinical outcomes.

Hemodialysis has been performed in some form for more than half a century. A description of Willem Kolff's dialyzer and of the first clinical dialysis was published back in 1944.1 Murray and collegues performed the first human hemodialysis in North America.2 At its inception, the dialysis prescription was empirically determined, and “adequate dialysis” was interpreted as the amount of dialysis required to keep the patient alive and relatively asymptomatic. Subsequently, there have been numerous approaches to quantify the delivered dialysis dose in a reproducible manner, and to link the dialysis dose with clinical outcomes.

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