The Acute Hemodialysis Unit (AHU)

Overview

The Acute Hemodialysis and Apheresis Unit (AHU) is an 8-bed unit located on the 9th floor of Long Hospital. The staff provides hemodialysis and apheresis therapy on the unit to adult and pediatric patients and can also provide dialysis to patients in the operating room, emergency department, or other units at Long/Moffitt Hospitals.

Dialysis (short for "hemodialysis") is a treatment for people whose kidneys have ceased to work properly. The two most common causes of kidney failure are diabetes and high blood pressure. A dialysis machine (pictured) does the work of the kidneys by removing excess fluids and cleansing the patient's blood through a filter to remove toxins. Some patients on long-term dialysis eventually receive a kidney transplant.

Apheresis (short for "hemapheresis") is a procedure in which a machine separates out a component of blood drawn from a patient or donor and then returns the remaining blood components to the body. Because blood components such as red blood cells, white blood cells, and plasma differ in weight and other characteristics, they can be separated by a filter and/or a spinning centrifuge device. Two examples of the many applications for apheresis in the treatment of blood diseases are:

• removal of excess white blood cells in leukemia.
• removal of abnormal red blood cells and their replacement with donated normal red bloods cells in Sickle Cell Disease.

Patient Care

The AHU serves transplant patients, patients with acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) kidney failure, and patients with cancer, hematologic (blood-related) or neurological problems.

All members of the unit staff are registered nurses who are skilled in dialysis and aspheresis therapies. They provide care for patients in a variety of clinical settings that meet the monitoring requirements and clinical conditions of each patient. For more information, see AHU Nursing.

Principles of Nutrition in Kidney Failure

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Nutrition and Kidney Failure - Basic Principles Document