Home Hemodialysis

Home hemodialysis (HHD), is the provision of hemodialysis in the home of people with stage 5 chronic kidney disease. In the US home hemodialysis was the most common method of renal replacement therapy in the early 1970s before the introduction of the Federal ESRD program under Medicare. With routine payment for dialysis secured through Medicare incenter hemodialysis quickly became the most common form of renal replacement therapy. In the late 1970s with the advent of peritoneal dialysis, another form of home dialysis, HHD went into further decline. In 2002 HHD began a resurgence in the United States with the introduction of machines designed solely for home use.

People on home hemodialysis are followed by a nephrologist who writes the dialysis prescription and they rely on the support of a dialysis unit for back-up treatments and case management. Studies show that HHD improves patients' sense of well-being; the more they know about and control their own treatment the better they are likely to do on dialysis.