Chinese Medicine on Deferring Dialysis Initiation

Stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD), also end stage renal disease(ESRD), usually presents overt clinical symptoms and is a critical stage when patients are encountered with dialysis. The optimal time to initiating dialysis in patients with stage 5 CKD is addressed as the most important dialysis-related question. As indicated by the recently published European Renal Best Practice (ERBP) guideline, early initiation seemed to produce no benefit but greater expenditure and sometimes more harm.Renal replacement therapies (RRT) including dialysis are the most common procedures for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), but conservative management should be an option in patients who still experience the stable period without clinical indications of dialysis.Chinese Medicine (CM) is recognized as an alternative therapy on alleviating uremic symptoms, deferring dialysis initiation, and improving quality of life. Although the effects of CM on kidney disease have been demonstrated in animal experiments, evidence from large clinical trial is insufficient. So we raise the hypothesis that CM therapies including Chinese herbal formula, Chinese patent medicine via oral pattern and/or Colonic administration, will defer the initiation of dialysis in adults with stage 5 CKD.