Research by a South Carolina medical doctor shows that many patients who are told that they need dialysis could actually hold off on beginning the procedure for months or even years, in turn preserving what kidney function they have left.
Dr. Steven Rosansky with the Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia and his colleagues reported that the dialysis prodedure itself can contribute to the loss of a patient’s remaining kidney function much faster than it would decline otherwise.
Dr. Rosansky says that before Medicare began paying for dialysis in the 1970′s, patients wouldn’t begin dialysis until they had lost all but two percent of their kidney function. He says since then an international trend has developed, led by the United States, that starts a patient on dialysis much sooner, in some cases with as much as 20 percent of their kidney function remaining. [Read more...]
