Need cost-effective dialysis: Experts

With kidney failure becoming common in Indian families, there is need for a cost-effective course of dialysis, health experts said Thursday.

Kidney failure, a chronic condition, is becoming more and more common in India. Dialysis in hospitals also entails high risk of Hepatitis C and other infections in patients, health experts gathered for a round table discussion on "Rational and cost-effective management of chronic renal failure: Payer and payee perspective" said here.

The condition becomes a source of great distress to patients and their families as treatment through dialysis is expensive. There is thus urgent need for a cost-effective, rational financial means of performing dialysis, the experts said.

The forum offered an opportunity to recognise the need for inclusion of peritoneal dialysis (which uses the peritoneum in the abdomen as the membrane across which fluids and dissolved substances are exchanged from the blood) in health insurance cover.

Peritoneal dialysis offers better quality of life to renal patients, as the treatment can be conducted at home. It also lowers risk of infection, a release said.

Dialysis is a life-saving treatment for patients with kidney failure waiting for an organ transplant.

On the panel of doctors who participated in Thursday's discussions were Dinesh Khullar of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Gokulnath of St. John's Hospital, Bangalore.