What Choices Are There for Dialysis?

Dialysis can be done in several different ways, including at home. Very often, the choice is not based on medical reasons, but on what fits best with your lifestyle. So it’s important to learn all you can before you make a decision.

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a treatment that is portable, and you can do it on your own at home, at work, on the go. With PD, waste and extra water are removed through the blood vessels of the peritoneum in your abdomen.

•  Peritoneal basics
•  What to expect with peritoneal dialysis
•  A closer look at peritoneal dialysis
•  PD Patient Video Profile: KaShawna Foster
•  PD Patient Video Profile: Elden Goe

Hemodialysis in a center means going to a dialysis center, usually 3 times a week for several hours, where staff members will assist with your treatment. Waste and extra water are removed from your blood by a filter on a machine.

•  About center hemodialysis

Home hemodialysis is another way to have dialysis at home. It can keep you independent and has some special health benefits.

•  Home hemodialysis basics
•  What to expect with home hemodialysis
•  Home hemodialysis with NxStage

If you choose hemodialysis, start with a fistula in place for better health and survival.

•  What a fistula is and why it’s important

Northwest Kidney Centers offers a free class, Choices, to help you learn more about dialysis and transplant and how to plan.

•  About Choices class
•  Class schedules and how to sign up

Northwest Kidney Centers keeps people in the Seattle area alive with dialysis care, educates the public about kidney health, and collaborates with UW Medicine in the Kidney Research Institute. We are one of very few community-based, nonprofit dialysis providers in the country. Founded in 1962, ours was the first out-of-hospital dialysis program in the world and it is still a model in the field.