According to the recent KDIGO Controversies Conference on Symptom-Based Complications in Dialysis, the symptom burden is high in patients undergoing hemodialysis therapy, with as many as 30 different kinds of symptoms having been reported. Although patients can experience an average of 9 symptoms, routine symptom assessment is not universal or standardized in dialysis care.
Particularly, patients who have been on maintenance dialysis for many years may encounter added symptoms and disease burdens that are often masked by age-related health decline. Such a case in point is dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA), which offers a prime example that with proper symptom detection and a careful review of the patient's clinical presentation, meaningful approaches can provide not only symptom relief but slow the progression of the comorbid disease as well.
This video, Dialysis-Related Amyloidosis: A Perspective from the US with Jeffrey Silberzweig, MD, is part of a four-part video series on DRA that serves to underscore the key conclusion from the KDIGO conference: proper symptom management can potentially lead to improved quality of life and should constitute a fundamental part of dialysis care.
KDIGO would like to thank Kaneka for their support of this educational initiative.
