National Kidney Foundation report on dialyzer reuse.

Numerous organizations have presented their views previously on the reprocessing of hemodialyzers. These were well summarized by Easterling (Easterling, RE: Regulations and Standards, in Deane, Wineman, Bemis [eds]: Guide to Reprocessing of Hemodialyzers. Martinus Nijhoff, 1986, pp 183-197). The publication of the Recommended Practice by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) on the reprocessing of dialyzers, coupled with the announcement of the Federal Government to accept these as the basis for Regulations administered by HCFA (now published as "Standards for the Reuse of Hemodialyzer Filters and Other Dialysis Supplies," Federal Register, Oct. 2, 1987), prompted the President of The National Kidney Foundation, Dr Richard Glassock, to appoint a Task Force to formulate the Foundation's position on the above. The members of the Task Force were: Michael J. Fisher, Raymond Hakim, MD, Nathan W. Levin, MD, Chairperson, John M. Newmann, PhD, David A. Ogden, MD, and Vincent Pizziconi, PhD. After having reviewed the previous NKF report on the issue of dialyzer reuse (American Journal of Kidney Diseases 3:466, 1984), the Task Force resolved that the principles of patient consent to dialyzer reuse and right to refuse a reused dialyzer as presented in the report be reaffirmed. While accepting the AAMI Recommended Practice as the basis for its recommendations, the Task Force recognized that the concerns of some patients were not met by the document. In addition to a number of technical amendments that were proposed, the Task Force, acting in the interest of patients, felt that it was essential to add information concerning the potential advantages and disadvantages of reuse.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)