Treatment Options
for Patients with
Kidney Failure
Nurses need to help patients with chronic kidney disease make
informed decisions about future interventions.
By Susan LaRocco, PhD, RN
K
idney failure brings to mind two pos-
sible treatments: kidney transplanta-
tion, the treatment of choice for eligible
patients, and dialysis. For most people,
the term
dialysis
conjures up images
of a patient attached to a hemodialysis machine for
several hours a day, several times a week, in an outpa-
tient facility. Many people have no idea that hemodial-
ysis may be performed in a patient’s home as well as
in a hemodialysis center, or that there’s any
other type
of dialysis, namely peritoneal dialysis. Even
some nur-
ses aren’t familiar with the various dialysis
options,
which may be why some patients who require
renal
replacement therapy don’t learn about the dif
ferent
treatment options or the risks and benefits as
sociated
with each.
To make informed choices about future inter-
vention, patients with chronic kidney disease need
to understand the full range of treatments available
to patients with kidney failure—and to understand
these treatment alternatives long before they progress
to that disease stage. For this reason, nurses must be
prepared to teach them about the advantages of pre-
emptive and early kidney transplantation; the basics
of both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis; the range
of environmental, procedural, and scheduling options
available to patients undergoing either type of dialy-
sis; and the circumstances under which to consider
palliative care.
THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and
obesity, all ubiquitous in the United States, are major
risk factors for chronic kidney disease, which affects
nearly 17% of U.S. adults over the age of 20.
1
Kidney
failure, also called end-stage renal disease (ESRD),
the fifth stage of chronic kidney disease, is defined
as having a
glomerular filtration rate below 15 mL/
min/1.73 m
2
or requiring dialysis to sustain life (see
Table 1).
2
Patients whose chronic kidney disease has
progressed to ESRD qualify for Medicare-reimbursed
health care.
2
According to the U.S. Renal Data System,
in 2008, the prevalence of ESRD in the United States
was 1,699 patients per million population, or nearly
ajn@wolterskluwer.com
A
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October 2011
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Vol. 111, No. 10
57
A patient talks with the hemodialysis technician while being connected
to a dialysis machine at a local hemodialysis facility. Photo by Robert
McLeroy /
San Antonio Express
/ ZUMA Press / Newscom.
CLINICAL
FEATURE