Incremental Haemodialysis in Incident Patients

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Incremental haemodialysis: It consists in reducing the frequency or number of sessions per week with which patients start the HD treatment. The experimental group will start with one session/week, then the number of weekly sessions will be increased to two and later to three as per criteria for progression

Conventional haemodialysis: It is controlled through usual clinical practice, based on starting the HD treatment with three sessions per week (control group).

Study summary

Background: Incremental hemodialysis (HD) is a starting regime for renal replacement therapy (RRT) adapted to each patient's necessities. It is mainly conditioned by the residual renal function (RRF). The frequency of sessions with which patients start HD -one or two sessions per week-, is lower than that for conventional HD three times per week. Such frequency is increased (from one to two sessions, and from two to three sessions) as the RRF declines.

Methods/Design: IHDIP is a multicenter randomized experimental open trial. It is randomized in a 1:1 ratio and controlled through usual clinical practice, with a low intervention level and non-commercial. It includes 152 patients older than 18 years with chronic renal disease stage 5 and start HD as RRT, with a RRF of ≥ 4ml/min/1.73m2, measured by renal clearance of urea (KrU). The intervention group includes 76 patients who will start with one session of HD per week (incremental HD). The control group includes 76 patients who will start with three sessions per week (conventional HD). The primary purpose is assessing the survival rate, while the secondary purposes are the morbidity rate (hospital admissions), the clinical parameters, the quality of life and the efficiency.

Discussion: This study will enable us to know with the highest level of scientific evidence, the number of sessions a patient should receive when starting the HD treatment, depending on his/her RRF.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Survival rate — 24 months
  Assess and compare survival in subjects with one session a week as an RRT starting regimen, compared to those patients who start RRT with the conventional method

Trial sites (3)