Home dialysis: its costs and problems.

A short description is given of the starting and the running of a home dialysis unit for chronic renal failure. The cost of training and treating 22 home dialysis patients, over an 18-month period is recorded. The annual maintenance costs of patients on home hemodialysis are found to be no more, and often less, than those of the institutional care of any other chronic malady. Furthermore, the prospects for full rehabilitation are good. This being so, home dialysis cannot be regarded as a costly luxury but a treatment which every suitable candidate may reasonably expect.