Patient-Centered Care Could Improve Quality of Life and Survival of Dialysis Patients: Dialysis Prescription and Daily Practice

We now face a paradigm shift in clinical practice and research of dialysis from evidence-based medicine outcomes to patient-reported outcomes (PROs). It is imperative to establish a daily practice pattern based on the PROs, namely “patient-centered dialysis care.” In 2005, we introduced the concept of “patient-oriented dialysis,” which includes two fundamental components; adjustment of the dialysis prescription according to the PROs and nutritional intervention based on the global nutritional assessment. Routine examinations and team meetings were held to monitor the status of PROs and nutrition, and intervention plans were reevaluated. We found that the total score of the PROs was closely related to the survival rate of dialysis patients, and some of those were identified as independent mortality risk factors. These results might have shown that patient-centered dialysis care may improve the quality of life and the survival rate of dialysis patients. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is a unique synthetic membrane for a dialyzer with protein adsorption property and biocompatibility. Several clinical advantages of PMMA were reported as ameliorating inflammatory status, nutritional status, skin itchiness, and dialysis-related fatigue. PMMA is a fundamental and major choice for improving PROs in patient-centered dialysis care.