Increase the number of patients treated at home with peritoneal dialysis. This is the concrete commitment emerged from the meeting held at the Hall of Frescoes of the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, which saw a comparison between nephrologists, representatives of regional institutions and the main patient associations.
The debate, wanted by the general manager of the A.O.U. Vanvitelli Ferdinando Russo and by professor Luca De Nicola (director of the U.O. Nephrology and Dialysis of the Vanvitelli polyclinic), ended with the agreement to create by 2024 a "Diagnostic Therapeutic Care Path" (Pdta), valid at the regional level, thanks to which to overcome the obstacles that today make this opportunity unrealizable for most patients suffering from chronic kidney disease in the dialysis phase.
Director Ferdinando Russo explains that "increasing the number of patients on peritoneal dialysis would be a victory for everyone", because this method "guarantees - he explains - a better quality of life, a greater survival to chronic kidney disease and a saving for the health system".
This is confirmed by the numbers: to date in Campania there are about 5,000 patients who need to resort to dialysis, for a cost of over 200 million euros a year, since the total costs charged to the Regional Health Service are about 50,000 euros a year for each patient on hemodialysis and just under half (about 20,000 euros) for patients on peritoneal dialysis, a service that is practiced at home.
"Unlike hemodialysis - clarifies De Nicola, who is also President of the Italian Society of Nephrology - peritoneal dialysis can be performed during the night or during normal daily activities, it is also an effective dialysis, more physiological and that does not lose diuresis".
Thanks to telemedicine systems, it is also possible for hospital nephrologists to verify in real time the values of patients and, if necessary, make changes to the treatment.
"This is a hospital service at home, with all the benefits this entails in terms of health and social and working life", highlighted Ugo Trama, director of U.O.D. Pharmaceutical Policy and Devices Region Campania, who represented the regional institutions at the meeting.