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If you want to know the difference between hemodialysis and hemofiltration when your loved one is critically ill in intensive care, stay tuned. I’ve got news for you.

So, some patients in ICU or in intensive care need hemodialysis or hemofiltration for acute or chronic kidney failure. There is a difference between the two of them and I want to explain them to you today.

So, hemodialysis and hemofiltration are both renal replacement therapies used to treat kidney failure, but they operate through different mechanisms.

Let’s start with hemodialysis. This process involves using a dialyzer also known as an artificial kidney to filter blood. The blood is passed through a semi-permeable membrane where waste products, excess fluids, and toxins diffuse across into a dialysis solution also known as dialysate. Hemodialysis relies on both diffusions, the movement of salutes, and convection, the movement of fluid to remove waste products from the blood.

Let’s look at hemofiltration. This technique uses a similar approach but differs in that it primarily relies on convection rather than diffusion for removing waste. Blood is passed through a filter and the high-pressure gradient forces water and solutes to move across the filter. The filter fluid is replaced with a replacement fluid which ensures that the patient’s fluid balance is maintained. Hemofiltration is often used in more critically ill patients who require continuous renal replacement therapy, also known as CRRT.

In summary, while both treatments remove waste from the blood, hemodialysis uses diffusion and convection to feed the blood, and hemofiltration primarily uses convection with replacement fluids.

Now, the main difference, however, in ICU, which is not explained in ChatGPT, I actually used ChatGPT, but this is also where I believe ChatGPT has some deficits.

So, when you do hemodialysis instead of hemofiltration, the patient is having 400 or 500 mls up to 1000 mls removed in a few hours, it’s very taxing on the body and the patient in intensive care can crash because of it, can crash and can need inotropes or vasopressors and potentially blood transfusions to bring up a blood pressure that has dropped very low.

Whereas hemofiltration is a much gentler approach. So, instead of removing 500 mls, 1000 mls within just a few hours, hemofiltration, you can remove a liter or 2 liters over a 24-hour period. It’s much gentler.

The difference is that with hemofiltration, patients need to stay on the filter for long periods of times 48 hours, 72 hours. Then, the filter needs to be changed anyway, but it is a much gentler approach. Most patients in ICU therefore go on hemofiltration instead of hemodialysis because it is a much gentler approach. So, that is the main difference between hemofiltration and hemodialysis.

It’s also patients in ICU are often being labeled as they are on dialysis. Whereas in reality, they are on hemofiltration. Very few patients in ICU, from my experience, are on hemodialysis. Most of them are actually on hemofiltration.

Now, I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in ICU. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com.

I can very confidently say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com where you can read up what our clients say or you can watch our podcast at intensivecarehotline.com and you can watch some client interviews that we’ve done, verifying the work that we have done for them or for their loved ones, saving their lives.

We have helped hundreds and thousands of members and clients over the years getting results when they have loved ones critically ill in intensive care and we can do the same for you and that is why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link or if you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly. In the membership, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email and we answer all questions intensive care related.

In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos and all of these resources and the access to me and my team will help you to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I talk to doctors and nurses directly. When I talk to you and your families directly, I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get a second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

All of that, you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected] with your questions.

If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell, comment below what you want to see next, what questions and insights you have from this video, please share the video with your friends and families.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show. You will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel or if you are a subscriber to my email newsletter at intensivecarehotline.com.

Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.

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