Give My Regards To Reuse

To be honest I have been receiving dialysis with reuse for almost 3 years now, and have not come across any noticeable problems from the sterilants used to disinfect my dialyzer, but what about the future? Will I have problems later in life because of the minute quantities that may slip into my blood system? If a dialyzer is not sterilized properly, bacteria from the dialyzer may grow to dangerous levels and cause infection the next time it is used on the patient.

Before a dialyzer is used again after reuse, it is always rinsed with saline to rid the dialyzer of any remaining sterilant, but does this remove it all? A safety check is always done prior to putting a patient on the dialysis machine. A check for any remaining sterilant is done, as well as a check to make sure that the dialyzer is yours with your name on it.

I did sign a reuse form when I first started dialysis. I didn't know what it meant. Now that I am aware, I am not sure if I want to ask my doctor to change my dialyzer prescription to no reuse or not. This may mean a different type of dialyzer, and I don't know how that will affect me. I am still undecided.

My dialysis treatments are going well now, and I haven't had any problems as far as my dialyzer is concerned. (knock on wood and thank God)
If it's not broke, I don't want it fixed, not until I have a little more clarity about the so called "evils" of reuse.

There is an ongoing debate about how harmful or not reuse really is. When the results are finally concrete, the steps the government, the doctors and the dialysis companies take should prove in the best interest of the patient. At least we hope so.

For more information on these sterilants: Renalin® Formaldehyde

For more discussion on reuse in dialysis check out Dialysis Ethics Once here, click on the news link to bring you to the bulletin board.

UPDATE
My unit has stopped reuse as of October 2000. I'm not sure why, but I hope it continues.

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