MONTREAL—A growing number of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients at the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) have become the beneficiaries of high efficacy hemodiafiltration (HDF), an extracorporeal blood purification technique.
Since the HDF unit was introduced in CHUM's Nephrology section, preliminary results show a clear advantage of high efficacy HDF over conventional hemodialysis in several areas including improved removal of uremic toxins; decreased number of hospitalization days; a better tolerance for patients; minimized chronic inflammation that too often may lead to complications over a long course of dialysis; diminished need for certain medications; and increased biocompatibility across the blood-dialysis system interface.
