Fresenius Medical Care enhances home dialysis offering for patients in Europe, Middle East and Africa region

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Fresenius Medical Care, the world’s leading provider of dialysis products and services, is enhancing its home dialysis offering in the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The now-completed integration in EMEA of the NxStage home dialysis portfolio, following U.S.-based NxStage’s acquisition by Fresenius Medical Care, enables the company to offer even more patients at-home treatment and a wider choice of treatment methods.

Home dialysis offers a number of advantages to patients, above all the freedom to be treated on their own schedule and in the comfort of their own home. During the current difficult situation, this enables them to receive their lifesaving dialysis treatment without having to go out and risk a possible infection with COVID-19.

“Due to the integration of the NxStage portfolio in the EMEA region, we can offer lifesaving dialysis to a growing number of patients in their home environment,” said Dr. Katarzyna Mazur-Hofsäß, Fresenius Medical Care’s Chief Executive Officer for EMEA. “In this way we are expanding treatment options and contributing to continuous care. Our commitment is to be able to offer every person who needs dialysis the right therapy, at the right time, in the right place.”

With home dialysis, the therapy options include home hemodialysis (HHD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD).

The “NxStage SystemOne” from Fresenius Medical Care, an HHD system that is especially easy to operate, allows patients to dialyze more frequently but for shorter periods than in a dialysis clinic. This may bring improved treatment results: The increased dialysis frequency makes improved blood pressure control possible, is associated with faster recovery time after treatment, and helps patients feel better.

It is possible to carry out home dialysis overnight (nocturnal hemodialysis), while the patient sleeps. It can be a slower and longer treatment that more closely resembles healthy kidney function, and therefore can be gentler on the heart. In addition, the removal of toxic metabolic products from the blood is even more thorough (improved middle molecule clearance), which can allow patients to enjoy a less-restrictive diet.

Along with HHD, Fresenius Medical Care offers a broad range of products for continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and automated peritoneal dialysis (APD), which use the body’s own abdominal membrane – the peritoneum – as a natural filter. The product range includes biocompatible dialysis fluids, bag systems, cyclers for automated peritoneal dialysis, and the related bag and tube systems.

Currently about 7 percent of dialysis patients in the EMEA region use home dialysis. Fresenius Medical Care supports both home and in-center dialysis equally, in order to provide the best and most suitable treatment for each individual patient.

Reference papers:
Pierratos A. et al. Nocturnal Hemodialysis: three-year experience. J Am Soc Nephrol 9: 859-868, 1998.

Walker R. et al. Home hemodialysis: a comprehensive review of patient-centered and economic considerations. ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research 9: 149-161, 2017.

Fagugli R. et al. Short daily hemodialysis: Blood pressure control and left ventricular mass reduction in hypertensive hemodialysis patients. Am J Kidney Dis 38: 371-376, 2001.

Jaber B. et al. Effect of daily hemodialysis on depressive symptoms and postdialysis recovery time: interim report from the FREEDOM (Following Rehabilitation, Economics and Everyday-Dialysis Outcome Measurements) Study. Am J Kidney Dis 56(3): 531-539, 2010.