Risks of dialysis before kidneys fail...

Health Day reports that people who start dialysis while their kidneys are still functioning are at greater risk of death in the first year of dialysis.

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medcine says "we found that there is a remarkably higher risk of death in healthy people that are being put on dialysis at higher levels of kidney function, senior research fellow Steven J. Rosansky is quoted as saying. 

"People who started dialysis early, based on their kidney function, were more likely to die in the first year than were those who started dialysis at a later stage of their disease: about 20 percent vs. 7 percent, the study found," reports Health Day.

"We don't have a lot of data to show that it is beneficial to start dialysis earlier, and it may be harmful," Health Day reporter Steven Reinberg quotes Kirsten L. Johansen, a University of California at San Francisco neurology professor, as saying.

Pulse on Health
By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists
Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 
Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel