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Social Security: Help available for those with kidney disease - Las Cruces Sun-News |
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EL PASO >> Every March, we pay special attention to the kidney, an organ vital to a healthy life. Social Security wants to help spread the word about the importance of kidney health and about what you should do if you think you or a loved one has a kidney-related disability.
Kidney disease prevents your kidneys from cleansing your blood to their full potential. Did you know that one out of three Americans is currently at high risk for developing kidney disease?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 million Americans have chronic kidney disease, and most of them don't even know it.
Ebie is a prime example. Ebie was an emergency room worker with an active life at work, home, and in his community. He had no idea he'd developed a kidney condition until one day he felt ill while driving to work and had to call a coworker for help.
Our Faces and Facts of Disability website features Ebie's story. He says people who receive Social Security disability benefits "can provide for themselves better and have a high quality of life." As Ebie explains, many people with kidney diseases can greatly increase their quality of life with Social Security benefits. You can learn more about Ebie's story at www.socialsecurity.gov/disabilityfacts.
If a kidney disease such as end-stage renal disease (known as ESRD) requires chronic dialysisand prevents you from working, Social Security may be able to help you. If you're undergoing dialysis, have had a kidney transplant, have persistent low creatinine clearance levels, or have persistent high serum creatinine levels, you may qualify for disability and/or Medicare benefits.
You can find more information about eligibility based on kidney disease and the benefits available to you by reading our publications, Disability Benefits and Medicare, both available at www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs.
Listed as one of Social Security's Compassionate Allowance conditions, kidney cancer is another condition that may qualify you for disability and Medicare benefits. The Compassionate Allowances program assists in cases where a person's medical condition is so severe it obviously meets Social Security's disability standards — allowing quick processing of the disability application and payment of benefits. You can find more information about Compassionate Allowances by visiting our website at www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.
Drink plenty of water, go for checkups, and if you think you may have a kidney disease, take action right away.
As Ebie says, "quality of life is everything."
If you think you may be eligible for Social Security disability benefits based on a kidney disease, please don't wait. Go to www.socialsecurity.gov/disabilityssi, where you can apply for benefits online.
Ray Vigil is a Social Security public affairs specialist in El Paso
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Paediatric dialysis unit expands - gulfnews.com |
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Abu Dhabi: The lifespan of a child who suffers from kidney failure can be shortened to just 10 years after the onset, and these young patients continue to require regular dialysis to survive. To make the arduous process more comfortable, the first dedicated paediatric dialysis unit in the UAE today (March 29) expanded its capacity.
There are now nine dialysis units for paediatric patients at Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), one of Abu Dhabi’s leading public hospitals, compared to just two when paediatric dialysis was first introduced to the emirate in 2003.
“We have seen a steady increase in the number of patients and are currently treating about 27 paediatric patients,” Dr Zubaida Al Esmaili, deputy chief executive officer at Abu Dhabi Health Services Company’s (Seha) Dialysis Services unit, told Gulf News.
“It is not that kidney disease is necessarily on the rise among young children. Instead, we now try to offer as much treatment as possible for conditions that were earlier thought to be untreatable,” she added.
Kidney failure in children can occur due to a number of causes, including congenital developmental abnormalities in infants, or an inflammation of the kidneys due to an autoimmune condition. In addition, the condition can be passed on genetically, and this type of kidney failure is more common in the region than the West because of the high rate of consanguineous marriages here, Dr Zubaida explained.
She also warned that obesity among children can contribute to hypertension in individuals as young as five to 10 years old, and high blood pressure at such a young age could lead to early kidney function impairment and renal failure. Moreover, high-power painkillers can also harm the kidneys greatly, especially when taken without the advice of a doctor.
The new dialysis unit is managed under the umbrella of the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) Dialysis Services, and is colourfully decorated with wall art and cheerful bed linen. It provides treatment for young patients who need haemodialysis, a procedure that removes fluid and waste products from the blood, as well as patients who opt for peritoneal dialysis, a slightly different method in which the fluid and waste is removed through the abdominal cavity and which can be conducted in the comfort of the patient’s home. Both Emirati and expatriate children with kidney impairment and failure receive care.
“Our youngest patient is just seven months of age, while the oldest is 14 years. Of course, dialysis is just a bridge until the child can receive a transplant, because the process itself takes about four hours each time and most paediatric patients must undergo it about four times a week,” Dr Zubaida said.
The new facility also allows more children to interact with one another, thus making the hospital experience more comfortable and relaxed for them.
She added that most children are also unable to start schooling because of the demands of dialysis.
“This is why we have educators who visit our hospitalised patients and give them a chance to expand their knowledge,” the doctor said
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Nephrologists Iffy About Dialysis in Expectant Moms - MedPage Today |
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Action Points
DALLAS -- A third of nephrologists reported being somewhat to very uncomfortable caring for a pregnant patient on hemodialysis despite a growing number having to do so, said researchers here.
A small mailed survey found that 43% of nephrologist respondents have cared for a pregnant patient on dialysis, and in 32% of those pregnancies, dialysis was started during the pregnancy. Half of all the pregnancies were complicated by preeclampsia, and 23% of the reported pregnancies did not result in a live birth, said researchers, led by Mala Sachdeva, MD, at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System in Great Neck, N.Y. She reported her results with her colleagues at a poster session during the spring clinical meeting of the National Kidney Foundation.
"We had actually noticed that we were caring for more and more pregnant patients on dialysis, and we had a couple of successful pregnancies and we wanted to see what the U.S. experience was," said Sachdeva in an interview with MedPage Today.But she said the team was surprised by the outcomes. "They were not great, though there were no reported maternal deaths. It tells us that we need something to work on," she said.
Data were taken from a survey sent out in May 2014 with 23 questions about the experience of pregnant women on dialysis, fetal outcomes, and current clinical patterns associated with pregnant patients on dialysis. Seventy-five nephrologists responded.
More than 59 pregnancies were reported in the last 5 years, and in 32% of the reported pregnancies, dialysis was started during pregnancy. In 58%, the pregnancy occurred within the first 5 years of being on maintenance dialysis.
Half of the nephrologists or a member of their staff had to counsel a female dialysis patient about contraception, the study found. And three-quarters of respondents didn't have access to fetal monitoring during dialysis for the patient.
Most of the nephrologists had their pregnant patients on 4 to 4.5 hours of hemodialysis for 6 days a week, and two-thirds of nephrologists targeted a blood urea nitrogen (BUN) of less than 50mg/dL. But there are no clear guidelines on how to dialyze a pregnant women, said Eileen Miller, MD, medical director of dialysis at North Shore-LIJ to MedPage Today.
The lack of guidelines accounts for a part of why many nephrologists reported being uncomfortable dialyzing a pregnant patient, said Miller. Another reason is that pregnant women on dialysis were relatively uncommon. "But as dialysis has gotten better, we're seeing more of it, and we need better guidelines so people will feel more comfortable. The last studies done looking at pregnant patients were more than 15 years ago," she said.
Miller said she's hopeful that more research will be done in the area.
Sachdeva and co-authors disclosed no relevant relationships with industry.
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State doctor's portable dialysis jacket gets international platform in the US - Times of India |
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RAIPUR: A portable 'jacket bag', which could possibly replace the bulky stationary dialysis machines in hospitals, designed by Chhattisgarh's Dr Puneet Gupta is going to be a part of a presentation at the forthcoming 2015 nephrology conference in US in September.
Dr Gupta, who heads the nephrology department at Dr BR Ambedkar Memorial Hospital here, will present his research work to over 250 top nephrologists from across the globe. The jacket, which operates on a battery weighing less than10kg, could prove a boon for dialysis patients due to its compact size and unlimited portability.
Talking to TOI about his research work, Dr Gupta said he has been working on the project since 2012. He said the design of the jacket is complete and is likely to be available in the market in a year or so.
Dr Gupta said patients have to usually visit hospitals two to three times a week for dialysis and have to be confined to the machine. However, the 'jacket' can be worn and used by patients anywhere, avoiding their trips to the hospital.
He said he has submitted his work to ethical committee for animal trial and once it is approved, it would be tested on human beings. "This jacket can significantly improve quality of life for patients," he said adding that while conventional dialysis requires at least 230 litres of water per patient dialysis, the jacket merely uses one litre water which can be recycled.
Claiming that the jacket would be a cost effective alternative for kidney patients, Dr Gupta said while dialysis are free of cost in government hospitals, private hospitals charge almost Rs 1,600-2,300 per setting and Rs 1,200 for disposable ones too. "Roughly a patient spends Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 on dialysis in private hospitals whereas the jacket, which is likely to cost Rs 50,000 commercially, would mean a onetime investment for a lifetime," he said.
Dr Gupta said there are about 10,000 patients in Chhattisgarh who require dialysis. However, there are only 80 machines available in government hospitals, forcing 90% patients to rely on private hospitals.
Dr Puneet said kidneys play a vital role in filtering waste products from the blood and regulating blood flow. They contain millions of filters called nephrons, which remove excess fluid and waste from the blood. This gets expelled from the body when we urinate. But when nephrons are damaged, the filtering system malfunctions and dangerous levels of fluid and waste products can accumulate. Dialysis is thus the only alternative available for such patients.
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