Dialysis may need to be performed on patients with failing kidneys more than just three times a week, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The federally-funded study, performed by Dr. Robert Foley of the University of Minnesota and colleagues, found that deaths, heart attacks and hospitalizations were much higher on the day after the two-day interval between treatments each week than at other times, according to the Associated Press.
"We could be doing a better job for our dialysis patients" and that might mean doing it more often, said Dr. Lynda Szczech, a Duke University kidney specialist who had no role in the study, as reported by the Associated Press.
The president of the National Kidney Foundation said she was "very troubled" by the results of the largest dialysis study yet, the Associated Press reports.
Most of the 400,000 Americans with failing kidneys stay alive by getting their blood purified by a machine three days a week at dialysis clinics -usually on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the Associated Press reports. In both cases, there's a two-day break between the last session of the week and the next one.
