PD University for fellows

I attended a 2-day conference on home dialysis known as “PD University for fellows” sponsored by the International Society for PD (ISPD), Wake Forest University, Baxter and NxStage in Baltimore, MD. This is a free conference for renal fellows taking place 4-5 times every year at different locations. It was one of the best organized and most efficient meetings I have ever attended.

Based on my experience I strongly recommend that every fellow finds the time during their 2nd year to attend one of these PD University conferences. Unfortunately most fellowship programs are incomplete in teaching all (advantages and disadvantages) of renal replacement therapies. This meeting re-emphasizes that RRTs should not compete with one another but rather complement each other in the life span of a patient with ESRD to provide the best possible therapy for the individual patient in the course of their disease at a given time.

The speakers were engaged and compassionate (John Burkhart, Martin Schreiber, Robert Lockridge, Joanne Bargman) but did not seem to be biased towards one or the other dialysis modality. The topics discussed included:

– Importance of modality education and understanding transition
– Reasons to consider PD more often
– Benefits of home HD – Short Daily to Nocturnal
– PD access: Key catheter placement issues, peri-operative care and catheter complications
– Principles of dialysis
– Approach to volume overloaded patient
– DOQI adequacy guidelines (PD/HD), Kt/V discussion, equations, goals and calculations
– Writing the PD prescription: Solute clearance issues interactive session – adequest
– Access issues in Home HD
– Metabolic issues in PD/HHD Patient, Ca and Phosphate related issues
– HD principles applied at home: Kt/V targets, prescription management, water issues, BP
– Non-infectious complications of PD
– The long term PD patient
– Preventing and managing infectious complications of PD/HHD

This is an excellent conference worthwhile your time while you are in training. Hotel costs and flight are covered! Attending before taking renal boards will certainly be helpful to answer most of the questions on dialysis-related topics.