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There is peritoneal dialysis, which is pretty portable and doesn’t filter the blood (it exchanges peritoneal fluid, which is a lot less invasive). It’s actually quite fascinating how simple the machine is — and in fact, the simplest version of the machine is literally two bags and a couple of valves, completely operated by gravity. Everyone is not eligible for this type of dialysis, however. I don’t remember why.

Oh, also, if you do peritoneal dialysis, it’s daily, whereas hemo dialysis is generally two or three times a week.



You have to be very reliable on a lot of fronts for peritoneal dialysis to work. Sterility is hard to maintain; you can't just wipe it off with alcohol like we do with small IV's because replacing a PD catheter involves going to the hospital for surgery. You have to remember to place and drain your dialysate. And so on.

For someone with meticulousness, educability on maintaining the pieces that go into PD, and a good living situation, it's far better than hemodialysis. But people like that are rarely the ones whose kidneys fail.




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