Valerie, 75 years
The impaired patient
Valerie lives in a happy relationship with her partner. She independently runs the household, cooks and spends time with her grandchildren. Valerie has established a structured daily routine to successfully incorporate her PD treatment at home.
In the last months, however, arthritis further reduced the mobility of her fingers and her manual strength. Now, Valerie has difficulties to break the pin in the y-tubing of the twin bag and connecting the transfer set.
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Rheumatic disease is common in renal patients(1) and Valerie is offered a hospital-based therapy by her nephrologist. She would prefer to continue her therapy at home and needs assistance.
With PeriSafe®, moderate dexterity impairment is no longer a handicap: button 1 breaks the pin and the transfer set is easily placed in the device. Valerie could continue her treatment at home.
Ursula, 65 years
The peritonitis patient
Ursula is an active volunteer in her community and has been successfully performing PD at home for two years. Recently, Ursula moved to a new city and experienced her first episode of peritonitis.
After full recovery, Ursula is worried about which step in her daily PD routine could have been compromised. She considers switching to hospital-based HD to prevent future infections.
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Patient’s compliance with proper dialysis technique decreases over time. This change in behavior is associated with an increased risk of peritonitis (2,3).
PeriSafe® provides a protected space to perform a secure transfer set connection and standardizes the exchange procedure. PeriSafe® is easy to learn and will provide Ursula with the ease of use and ease of mind to continue her therapy at home.
Peter, 75 years
The assisted patient
Peter is a wheelchair-bound retiree living in his fully accessible home. Peter’s two children are working and alternate in assisting their father in his PD therapy. They are also supported by two home-care nurses who take care of Peter during working hours.
Peter is worried that his therapy puts an additional burden on his family and that the varying care increases the infection risk. Nevertheless, Peter prefers to remain in his familiar environment.
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PD is underutilized in elderly patients and assisted care by family and homecare nurses may overcome this problem. However, changes in dialysis technique are associated with increased risk of peritionitis(4,5,6).
PeriSafe® standardizes the exchange procedure and provides a protected environment to perform a secure transfer set connection. Like this, several care givers can share the therapy burden and make assisted PD a feasible and timesaving technique. Peter could continue his therapy at home with an easy mind.
Petra, 85 years
The nursing home patient
Petra lives in a nursing home and depends on regular care. Recently, Petra was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and now faces thrice-weekly visits to the hospital to receive renal replacement therapy.
Petra prefers to be treated using PD in her nursing home, but due to the additional training and staff-associated costs her nursing home cannot offer her this option.
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Elderly dialysis patients have significant comorbidity and complications like problems with vascular access or poor tolerance of HD. Integration of assisted PD in nursing homes could therefore increase PD penetration in older patients and improve their quality of life(7,8).
PeriSafe® standardizes the exchange procedure and could reduce the number of visits required per patient. Assisted PD in nursing homes becomes a feasible and time-saving technique to treat patients in their familiar setting.