Initiation of Hemodialysis on an Infant with End Stage Renal Disease--a Nursing Perspective (1980S) (Case Study‪)‬

This article was first published in the CANNT Newsletter (1986), 9(1), 1-4. As the feasibility of transplantation in infants and children has now been clearly demonstrated, the indications for dialysis in infants have widely increased. Most centres feel that peritoneal dialysis is the first treatment of choice in infants, but the failure of peritoneal dialysis or the unsuitability of the patient for this mode of treatment indicates a need for another choice of treatment, namely hemodialysis. We, at The Hospital for Sick Children, have noticed a definite increase in the population of patients under 10 kg who, in fact, require hemodialysis. Just as the technology of hemodialysis in adults has rapidly evolved in the past two decades, so has been our experience in even just the last two years with dialysis on infants.