JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas  –   Brooke Army Medical Center is now able to offer inpatients an additional option for dialysis treatment to manage kidney failure.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, about 14% of Americans have chronic kidney disease. Many of those people benefit from dialysis, a treatment used to filter waste products from the blood when the kidneys aren’t functioning properly.

BAMC now offers admitted patients two dialysis options: peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis.

Peritoneal dialysis, a new service at BAMC, offers continuous filtration using the lining of the abdomen to filter the blood inside the body. A soft plastic catheter is surgically placed in the abdomen, and a sterile cleansing fluid is infused through the catheter. After the filtering process is finished, the fluid is drained from the body through the catheter.

Full Story