Some dialysis patients recover kidney function

Doctors may be sentencing too many patients to a lifetime of dialysis, according to a study from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Researchers followed 150 patients from January 1999 to December 2001. Of those, eight patients were able to recover their kidney function and remain dialysis-free for an average of 20 months.

Doctors should keep checking the kidney function of patients on dialysis, especially those who have good "residual renal function," which means the ability to make a good amount of urine, the study’s lead author said.

The findings were published yesterday in the online journal "BMC Nephrology." Read the abstract.