Dialysis: “Abdominal Dialysis” or “Hemodialysis”? Uremic patients need dialysis to remove toxins from their bodies, but which is better: peritoneal dialysis (hereinafter referred to as “abdominal dialysis”) or hemodialysis (hereinafter referred to as “hemodialysis”)? But which is better: peritoneal dialysis (“abdominal dialysis”) or hemodialysis (“hemodialysis”)? More than half of the patients can choose either way. Patients should consider and choose comprehensively based on their doctors’ opinions, economic conditions, living environment and proximity to the hemodialysis center. It is reported that at present, Zhongshan First Hospital has changed the situation that many hospitals have more hemodialysis patients than abdominal dialysis patients, there are 612 abdominal dialysis patients and 250 hemodialysis patients, becoming the largest abdominal dialysis center in the Asia-Pacific region. Choice A: Hemodialysis Xiao Huang (a pseudonym), who has chosen hemodialysis for 11 years, is a soldier, 40 years old. 8 years ago he had a kidney replacement, but 10 days later he had acute rejection and had to remove the transplanted kidney and continue to live by hemodialysis. He does hemodialysis three times a week for four hours each time, and spends the rest of the time surfing the Internet and playing cards, “except for these three afternoons, the rest of the time is his own.” Choice B: Peritoneal dialysis Xu Sheng (a pseudonym), who chose to do abdominal dialysis at home, is an ordinary office worker who chose to do abdominal dialysis at home after getting UTI. He wakes up at 7:30 a.m. every day, spends 15 minutes to drain the dialysis fluid that was pumped into his abdomen through a catheter the night before, and another 15 minutes to inject new dialysis fluid into his body, then goes to work. The process is repeated at 12:00 noon, 4:00 p.m. and before he goes to bed at night. The rest of the time, he can work as usual, except that he has to return to the hospital once a month for a checkup. The same uremia needs “dialysis”, Xiao Huang and Xu Sheng respectively chose hemodialysis and abdominal dialysis. The ratio of “abdominal dialysis” to “hemodialysis”: 8:2 in Hong Kong, 2:8 in China Statistics show that China currently has nearly one million patients with uremia similar to Xiao Huang and Xu Sheng, and these people are increasing at a rate of 10% per year. Guangdong population with chronic kidney disease accounted for 12.6% of patients, which is a medium to high level. Abdominal dialysis, hemodialysis and kidney transplantation are the three alternative treatments for end-stage renal disease, but due to the shortage of kidney sources, patients generally rely on hemodialysis and abdominal dialysis to maintain life or as treatment before kidney transplantation. For the two “dialysis” methods, Professor Yu said that in some developed countries and regions, such as Hong Kong, the ratio of abdominal dialysis “dialysis” to hemodialysis “dialysis” is 8:2, while in China the ratio is the opposite, at 2:1. The ratio is exactly the opposite, 2:8. Hemodialysis and abdominal dialysis complement each other At present, only 1/3 of the “dialysis” patients in the hospital choose abdominal dialysis. choose abdominal dialysis less patients, does it mean that abdominal dialysis is not as good as hemodialysis? I can’t say who is better than who with abdominal dialysis and hemodialysis, but the two are actually complementary methods. The two are equally effective, except that hemodialysis requires the use of a hemodialysis machine and requires visits to the hospital two to three times a week, while abdominal dialysis patients can basically take care of themselves at home after purchasing dialysis solution and being guided by their doctors, but they have to dialyze three or four times a day, and if they use a fully automated peritoneal dialysis machine, they can perform dialysis every night while they sleep. Patients can choose a dialysis method that is more suitable for them based on their living environment and proximity to a hemodialysis center. Peritoneal dialysis has another most important advantage – it preserves the patient’s residual kidney function. “In contrast, peritoneal dialysis slows the rate of kidney function decline and has less impact on the human heart and blood circulation dynamics. The total cost of peritoneal dialysis is about 15% lower than hemodialysis. It is understood that the current annual comprehensive treatment costs of hemodialysis are mainly for various drugs, technical services of medical staff, etc., while the big expenses of peritoneal dialysis are spent on the purchase of peritoneal dialysis fluid.