What You Need to Know About Dialysis Water Treatment Systems

Dialysis water treatment systems are made to ensure that the patient receiving the treatment is treated with the cleanest water possible.

Dialysis is the process by which any toxins, solutes, and water from the blood are removed from a patient. These processes are typically done by the kidney, but when a kidney is no longer able to do these naturally, patients need to undergo dialysis treatment or renal replacement therapy.

In this content piece, we will discuss the dialysis water treatment systems used to purify and filter the water for patients.

 

Dialysis and its Types

As mentioned above, dialysis is a treatment meant to ensure that the blood-cleansing properties of a kidney are carried out when they cannot be conducted naturally. Kidney failure or chronic kidney disease can make this procedure a necessity, as this issue can be fatal if left untreated.

Dialysis filters out contaminants from the blood and typically has two types.

• Hemodialysis
• Peritoneal Dialysis

When anyone typically talks about dialysis, they usually mean hemodialysis, which is the more common type of dialysis. The former cleans blood outside the body, whereas the latter does it from within.

 

Why are Dialysis Water Treatment Systems Necessary?

During dialysis, cleaning contaminants requires using clean water. A dialysis patient will get exposed to somewhere around 40 gallons of water for each treatment, and since the process has to be conducted fairly regularly, this can add up significantly. In just three years, dialysis treatment can expose a patient to enough water that a healthy person consumes throughout their life.

Dialysis patients cannot use regular tap water and must have the water filtered before treatment for it to be usable. It is necessary for the water to be as clean and purified as possible, completely removing any and all impurities and contaminants within it. The process that dialysis water treatment systems often use is reverse osmosis, which is both a safe and cost-effective option for clinics to use.

 

Why is Tap Water Considered Contaminated?

One will ask that if tap water is considered safe to drink—at least in the US—then how is it not considered safe to be used in dialysis? Well, the reason is that water is not intrinsically pure. As a universal solvent, water can dissolve the most substances compared to other liquids.

That being said, tap water is not contaminated on its own but rather is considered contaminated for dialysis due to its requirements. If we drink tap water, it contains no harmful substances, specifically when it comes to ingestion. However, as dialysis treats the blood directly, it requires the water to be considerably cleaner and pure.

 

Contaminants in Tap Water

Tap water is treated and filtered at municipal water treatment plants, and they do contain a number of chemicals that are safe for ingestion but not for dialysis. A few examples can be:

• Fluoride

Fluoride is a common chemical used in treated water. Its main purpose is to prevent tooth decay and cavities. While a certain limit of this can be safe for consumption, it is a contaminant for dialysis treatment.

• Chloramine

Chlorine compounds are added to water to kill bacteria and prevent proliferation. If a dialysis patient is exposed to it, it can cause hemolytic anemia, a process where the red blood cells are destroyed faster than they reproduce.

• Copper and Zinc

The pipes used in water filtration systems and those connected to taps and the water system are made of copper and zinc. This material can also decay, leaving behind traces of the metal, which can also cause hemolytic anemia.

• Aluminum

Aluminum salts are common for water filtration in municipal systems to clear out any microorganisms, organic matter, and other materials. It can also leak from mortar pipes and into the water, similar to copper and zinc. To a dialysis patient, it is toxic, causing a number of serious issues.

 

How Dialysis Water Treatment Systems Work

There are maximum allowable levels of contaminants in water for dialysis treatment, though the use of an ‘ultrapure’ dialysis solution has been associated with a range of benefits. These water purification systems have three stages.

• Pre-treatment

In this phase, the water is treated to be of uniform temperature, filtration levels, softening, and carbon adsorption. The water is treated with hydrochloric acid to balance pH levels and treated with activated carbon to remove chloramine and other contaminants.

• Primary Purification

Filers are used to remove contaminants through reverse osmosis. Here, bacteria, endotoxins, and ionic contaminants are removed.

• Distribution

The now-purified water is distributed to the dialysis machines, which then create a dialysate solution to ensure that the water remains pure and filtered. The components used to make these systems are inert materials to ensure that they do not contaminate the water.

 

Maintenance of Purification Systems is Necessary

These dialysis water treatment systems have to be monitored and maintained to ensure that chemical or microbiological contaminants are not present. During dialysis, patients are also monitored for any of these contaminants regardless of the purification levels of the water itself.

 

Ultrapure Solutions are Beneficial for Patients

While standard dialysate can be used, the ultrapure solution has been found to be better for patient health overall. The higher cost is justified due to the higher quality of treatment and care provided through ultrapure dialysate.

This solution reduces the risk of heart-related mortality rates, improves nutrition, and helps maintain the remaining renal function of the kidneys for a longer period of time. It can also help balance blood pressure during treatment.

 

Conclusion

Renal function is a necessary and critical part of the human body’s function. Loss of renal function is essentially the loss of kidney function, and patients undergo dialysis due to this ailment.

The purity of the water in dialysis, however, needs to be looked upon with greater scrutiny. As patients are exposed to a lifetime’s worth of water consumed by an average person in a matter of a few years, ensuring that the purest water filtered with the best dialysis water treatment systems is a no-brainer.