The survival of patients on hemodialysis is very poor when compared to kidney transplantation. Several attempts have been made to improve the survival of dialysis patients. Some such attempts are more frequent dialysis, more prolonged dialysis, use of high flux dialyzers, use of ‘ultrapure’ dialysate, and better electrolyte and mineral metabolism. Hemodiafiltration is one such measure, where both diffusive and convective methods of toxin removal are exploited with a view of removing both small molecular weight and larger molecular weight toxins from the body.
In this procedure, the toxins are removed using principles of diffusion and convection. It offers a better survival to patients as compared to conventional dialysis- that involves only the principle of diffusion.
The most important requirement of hemodiafiltration is the availability of ultrapure (injection quality) water. It has been seen that many patients tolerate hemodiafiltration much better than hemodialysis with fewer hypertension episodes. Dr. Dinesh Khullar mentions a few benefits of this procedure:.
Prof (Dr) D Mukherjee is an alumnus of the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, Pune where he did his MBBS & MD (Medicine). Subsequently he went on to do his DM (Nephrology) from PGIMER Chandigarh, which is the foremost training institution for nephrology in India.