Alternative vs. conventional hemodialysis regimen: one size does not fit all.

Introduction: Dialysis regimen and setting (home or in the center), whenever possible, should be a patient choice. While a frequent and more intensive schedule has clinical benefits, incremental or decremental dialysis is a choice in specific clinical scenarios. In Brazil, dialysis is mostly funded by the public health system and modality other than conventional 3 times a week is affordable only for patients with private health insurance. We had the opportunity to investigate the characteristics of patients triaged into a given modality/schedule clinical in a private center.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients who initiated hemodiafiltration at home or in the facility between January 1st, 2021, and January 1st, 2024. Patients were divided into 4 groups: A (incremental/decremental, N=11, < 3 times a week or < 12 hours/week); B (conventional, N=64, 3 to 4 times a week); C (short daily, N=46, 5-6 times a week); D (long nocturnal, N=17, 6-8 hours 3-4 times a week). We evaluated the clinical and laboratory features of patients according to each group while initiating therapy and hospitalization rate.

Results: Patients allocated to group D were younger and less likely to have diabetes, 94.1% had an arteriovenous fistula, 64.7% were employed, and had higher albumin and phosphate when starting the modality (p<0.05 for all comparisons). Patients on home dialysis were older, mostly on short daily dialysis, most likely to have diabetes and use a catheter, and had lower hemoglobin, albumin and parathormone levels at the modality initiation (p<0.05 for all comparisons). Hospitalization rates did not differ among groups.

Conclusion: Younger patients tended to choose a nocturnal in-center regime whereas older patients tended to choose more frequent home dialysis. This information is critical to planning a dialysis portfolio that fits patients' needs when initiating dialysis.