Thirty-seven uninterrupted years of hemodialysis: a case report.

A patient is presented who was on uninterrupted hemodialysis for 37 years. She did extremely well for much of her time on hemodialysis. Significant issues that occurred included multiple vascular access problems, cardiac arrhythmias, osteodystrophy resulting in a fracture of her femur after light trauma, the incidental finding of a renal cell carcinoma, and the development of hepatitis C positivity. The literature of extremely long-lived patients on uninterrupted hemodialysis is reviewed, and the clinical characteristics and complications of these patients are discussed.