Support for You, Every Step of the Way
Where Are You in Your Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Journey?
CKD affects more than 1 in 7 people1 —if you have it, you are not alone. No matter where you are in your journey, learn all you can and take advantage of the help offered along the way. At every step there is support from your doctors, care team, and people just like you who have been through this, know what you’re going through, and are eager to see you live your best life.
Kidney disease means your kidneys are damaged and can’t function as they should. If you’re diagnosed, it’s important to learn more about your kidneys and take an active role in your care.
There are several stages of kidney disease, and where you are on your journey will determine what steps to take.
Your doctor and healthcare team can help you explore the treatments available for kidney disease, including transplantation and a variety of dialysis options.
NxStage systems offer home hemodialysis options tailored to meet your needs. Flexible treatment schedules, portability, solo, and nocturnal dialysis are all possibilities with NxStage machines.
More frequent home hemodialysis is gentler on your body and may lead to less stress on the heart, more energy, fewer medications, and many other benefits.
With more frequent home hemodialysis, most people experience a better quality of life with more freedom and feel healthier when compared to traditional in-center therapy.
NxStage systems add flexibility to your lifestyle. They are portable, designed to be easy to use, and enable individualized therapy options to address your unique needs.y
On the Visits with Vanessa podcast, you’ll hear about topics like traveling, storing supplies, and more from people on home dialysis.
See how Lisa’s quality of life and health improved at every step when she went from traditional in-center treatments, to more frequent home hemodialysis, to transplantation.
Discover the impact more frequent home hemodialysis may have on your life. For many it means greater freedom, a better quality of life, and healthier outcomes.
Interested in learning more about home dialysis? Our NxStage Patient Consultants are all current or former patients who can speak from personal experience.
See what people like you, who have an understanding of home dialysis, have to say about the impact it’s had on their lives.
NxStage cares about the whole person and not just the disease. It’s why we offer individualized home hemodialysis treatments that may improve health and quality of life.
Read inspirational stories about home dialysis patients overcoming obstacles throughout their kidney disease journeys.
Our patient consultants are all current or former NxStage users or care partners who can help answer your questions and walk you through what to expect with home dialysis.
Risks and Responsibilities
Patients should review the following information carefully and discuss it with their doctors to decide whether home hemodialysis with NxStage systems is right for them.
Users should weigh the risks and benefits of performing home hemodialysis with NxStage systems.
- Medical staff will not be present to respond to health emergencies that might happen during home treatments, including, among other things, dizziness, nausea, low blood
pressure, and fluid or blood leaks. - Users may not experience the reported benefits of home, more frequent, or nocturnal hemodialysis with the NxStage systems.
- The NxStage systems require a prescription for use.
Users will be responsible for all aspects of their hemodialysis treatment from start to finish.
- Medical staff will not be present to perform home treatments. Users will be responsible for, among other things, equipment setup, needle insertions, responding to and resolving
system alarms, system tear-down after treatment, monitoring blood pressure, ensuring proper aseptic technique is followed, and following all the training material and instructions that
nurses provide.
Users will need additional resources to perform home hemodialysis.
- Users will need a trained care partner to be present during your treatment at home (unless their doctor prescribes “solo/independent” home hemodialysis, described below).
- Users must have a clean and safe environment for their home treatments.
- Users will need space in their home for boxes of supplies necessary to perform home hemodialysis with NxStage systems.
Certain forms of home hemodialysis have additional risks.
- If a doctor prescribes home hemodialysis more than 3 times a week, vascular access is exposed to more frequent use which may lead to access related complications, including
infection of the site. Doctors should evaluate the medical necessity of more frequent treatments and discuss the risks and benefits of more frequent therapy with users. - If a doctor prescribes “solo/independent” home hemodialysis without a care partner during waking hours, risks of significant injury or death increase because no one is present to help
users respond to health emergencies. If users experience needles coming out, blood loss, or very low blood pressure during solo/independent home hemodialysis, they may lose
consciousness or become physically unable to correct the health emergency. Users will need additional ancillary devices and training to perform solo/independent home hemodialysis. - If a doctor prescribes “nocturnal” home hemodialysis at night while the user and a care partner are sleeping, risks increase due to the length of treatment time and because therapy is
performed while the user and a care partner are sleeping. These risks include, among other things, blood access disconnects and blood loss during sleep, blood clotting due to slower
blood flow or increased treatment time or both, and delayed response to alarms when waking from sleep. A doctor may need to adjust users’ medications for nocturnal home
hemodialysis, including, among other things, iron, Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents (ESA), insulin/oral hypoglycemics, anticoagulants, and phosphate binders
References
- https://www.cdc.gov/kidneydisease/publications-resources/ckd-national-facts.html
