NKTI to use dialysis method that uses less water

MANILA, Philippines — Patients undergoing treatment at the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) will be using another of method of dialysis which consumes less water, the hospital management said Thursday.

NKTI Executive Director Dr. Rosemarie Liquete said in a press conference that instead of using hemodialysis which consumes 100 liters of water per session, patients will now be treated using peritoneal dialysis (PD) which requires just around six liters of water.

“We have shifted patients to peritoneal dialysis instead of hemodialysis.  Of course we also need water there, but mainly for hand washing, and others,”

According to Liquete, a hemodialysis unit which circulates blood out of a patient’s body for the machine to clean, operates for four hours usually in five sessions.  But with PD, the machine itself would not be needing water.

“Ang peritoneal dialysis, ‘yon ‘yong peritoneal dialysis fluid ang ilalagay sa abdominal cavity ng pasyente.  And then magwa-wash out ‘yong paglabas niya to empty na lahat ng mga toxins ng body,” she explained.

These measures were done as a response to the ongoing water shortage affecting Manila Water consumers, especially hospitals in Quezon City such as NKTI, East Avenue Medical Center, the Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, and the Quirino Memorial Medical Center.

Earlier, the NKTI management revealed that they have shut down water supply to hospital rooms, to ensure that providing dialysis to critically-ill patients would continue.

READ:  NKTI shuts water supply to rooms so as not to jeopardize dialysis ops

NKTI Department Manager III Dr. Michael Jaro said water levels in their cistern have dropped to 20 percent as of 11 a.m.  Manila Water is scheduled to deliver four trucks of water to sustain the hospital’s minimum water requirement of 1,500 cubic meters.

Despite the change in the mode of dialysis, Liquete assured that PD is a safe method, aside from having no variations on the length of the treatment.

“Safe naman ‘yon, these are just the two modalities of dialysis.  (peritoneal dialysis is) very safe and more economical, actually you can do it at home, so malagyan lang sila, ite-train lang sila how to handle it, makakauwi na sila,” Liquete clarified.

“Actually meron talagang PD first policy ang hospital, of course sasabihin natin na PD ang aming gagamitin kasi mas economical, but patients also have a choice gusto nila ng hemodialysis,” she added.  /muf