Updating the Data: The Resource Consumption of Modern-Day Hemodialysis Systems

Abstract

Two decades ago, the kidney care community was first alerted to the extraordinarily high resource consumption of hemodialysis. Agar et al.1 identified that ∼500 l of water were required for each 4-hour conventional treatment, with only one-third used for dialysis and two-thirds lost as reverse osmosis (RO) “reject” water. Subsequently, this group and others reported high power usage, waste generation, and carbon emissions from hemodialysis,2-4,S4–S8 leading them to suggest that the overall recurrent per capita environmental impact of hemodialysis may well exceed all other medical therapies.