Is It Risk To Stop Hemodialysis

For many people with kidney failure, dialysis enables them to live longer and enjoy their quality of life. However, many people do not want to undergo dialysis because dialysis usually causes some side effects like poor appetite, itchy skin, muscle cramp, nausea and vomiting, etc. Is it risk to stop hemodialysis once they start?

Without life-sustaining dialysis, once a person with kidney disease reaches stage 5, toxins build up in the body and death usually comes within a few weeks.

There are many reasons why someone with ESRD many not want to continue or start dialysis. Some people feel they have lived a full life and do not want to bother with additional surgery and treatments. Besides, as we mentioned above, people cannot bother with the side effects of dialysis.

Why it is dangerous once you stop dialysis?

Without dialysis, toxins build up in the blood, causing a condition called uremia. Death usually follows anywhere from a few days to several weeks depending on how quickly the toxins build up. Therefore, it is very necessary for kidney failure patients to expel toxins in the blood by way of dialysis. Under this condition, it is risk to stop dialysis once patients start dialysis.

However, as long as kidney function is recovered and strong enough to discharge a certain of wastes, patients can stop dialysis. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is an indicator to reflect how well kidney function. Generally speaking, patients can stop dialysis when their GFR is above 15. In our hospital, experts innovate immunotherapy after many years of experiments. This therapy can remove toxins and recover kidney function. Though not everyone on dialysis can get rid of dialysis with this treatment, dialysis interval can be prolonged.

It is dangerous to stop dialysis if kidney function does not get improved. Therefore, if you want to avoid dialysis, you should repair kidney damage and recover kidney function.