Hialeah Hospital now offers the Lifesite hemodialysis access system, an FDA-approved device implanted underneath the skin designed to help dialysis patients enjoy a method of dialysis treatment that is less visible than conventional methods, reduces the risk of infection, and allows them to participate in activities such as taking a shower or going swimming.  

Traditionally, dialysis patients have had two options. The first involves connecting an artery and a vein via a graft under the skin, which still requires a puncture of the skin for dialysis treatment.  The second option involves inserting an external catheter into the right atrium of the patient's heart by tunneling the catheter under the patient's skin.  Since the catheter remains outside the skin, the risk for infection is greater than with the access system. Also, patients cannot let the device get wet, therefore limiting their activities of daily living. The hemodialysis access system is also inserted under the skin, but relies on a special titanium access portal that opens and closes like an earring hole, which allows the patient to submerge the hole under water, eliminates the need for an external catheter, and may reduce the risk of infection. It is intended to be permanent but can also be removed if the patient receives a kidney transplant.

"I am very happy to be able to offer this new, advanced device to dialysis patients," said Jose R. Lamas, M.D., F.A.C.S., a general vascular surgeon and Chief of Surgery at Hialeah Hospital who is treating dialysis patients with the new device.  "It minimizes catheter infections and improves the patients' quality of life. The device allows them to participate in everyday activities we sometimes take for granted."

Dialysis is provided for patients who suffer from renal failure. It takes over the function of the kidneys by acting as a filtration system, cleaning the blood the same way functioning kidneys would.