I had an interesting email from Lawrence recently, about the pros and cons of the various brands of dialysis machine:

Hi Greg

I’ve been dialysing for a year now on Fresenius machines and in the last few months have been doing home hemo on a Fresenius.  I’ve had constant issues with poor arterial pressures and alarms. The techies have been out to try and sort the problems and eventually decided that it must be my line which was the problem.  

This week I am on holiday and have been dialysing on a Braun machine.  What a difference!! I’ve been attaining pump speeds of 350 (I can barely make 300 on the Fresenius) and the arterial and venous pressures are brilliant! My KTV is 1.5.  

I communicated this to my unit who have been stonily silent on the subject.  Has anyone else come across this kind of difference?  I’d be interested to know.  The Braun seems a much superior machine to me, with far more streamlined tubing.  I’ve tried to research on the internet but can’t find any comparative studies on dialysis machines.

Best wishes, Lawrence

Hi Lawrence.  I don’t have a lot to contribute about various machines.  I dialyse on Gambro, which are fine.  I regularly achieve a pump speed of 370 milliLitres per minute (mL/min).  Gambro have the usual alarms and hassles, but do the job well for me.

On holidays I have dialysed on Fresenius, Braun and Nipro.  I have found that I don’t usually achieve more than about 350 on the Fresenius machines I use on holidays (through the nurses usually say that the Fresenius doesn’t need to go as fast to do a better job!).  Just the same, all seem fine to me, though technicians I have spoken to tend to rate Nipro a little behind all the others.

I have heard the NxStage machines tend to under dialyse because of their portable nature and use of limited water supply.

Regards, Greg

I look forward to hearing the thoughts from other BigD-ers!