Hemodialysis is a treatment that uses a machine to replace the work of your kidneys to eliminate waste products and excess fluid from your blood. A special filter in the machine called a dialyzer, which acts as a synthetic kidney, performs this waste removal process. Blood moves through tubing to the dialyzer, where it is “cleaned” by removing the wastes and excess fluid. After passing through the dialyzer, the filtered blood is returned to your body. A surgically implanted access allows to needles to be easily inserted prior to the treatment. One needle carries blood away from the body to the machine, and the other returns it. At any given time, only a small amount of your blood is out of your body and in the dialysis machine.
The entire process of hemodialysis can be performed at home by the patient and his or her care partner. Although many variations exist, we offer short daily home hemodialysis. Treatments generally last two to two and one half hours a day, six days a week; however, these can vary from patient to patient. At Southwest Georgia Nephrology Clinic, we are proud to offer this recently available technology.