The system that facilitates dialysis arrives in Donostia

1995/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

At the beginning of February, he was presented at Ntra Hospital. Mrs. From Arantzazu of San Sebastian the dialysis apparatus called HomeChoice. This is a model brought from Canada and is believed to be able to replace the long hospital dialysis treatments. The main contribution of this system is the utility that will improve the quality of life of the patient, since it performs his work in the home and during sleep.

The StartChoice is an automatic dialysis machine of 11 kilos of capacity, in addition to a terrace of use. The cleaning function that the kidneys cannot make their box is performed by the HomeChoice with the sleeping patient. The next day, just get up from the bed, you should observe the data that will appear on the small monitor of the dialysis device and measure the voltage.

The HomeChoice device is only available in cases of peritoneal dialysis. The impurities of the blood are cleaned through the serous membrane that covers the abdominal cavity and the organs of the cavity, filtering the cleaning liquid through the peritoneum and purifying the blood with traces.

The dialysis technique is the same as that of hospital machines. The advantage of the new system lies, therefore, in the independence that the patient, at least during the day, can forget the long hours he has stayed in the hospital and that when he enters the bed he will be the doctor and responsible for himself.

According to the data collected in the Health Report of 1994, there are 1,600 people in this situation in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. Although they never rule out the possibility of renal transplantation, they should be accustomed to alternative treatments. Half of the patients should follow a dialysis treatment. Most of them, about 640, require hemodialysis.