Tag Archives: Dialysis
The ESRD Program and Single Payer Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st July 2019In 1972 the nephrology community convinced congress to pay for the treatment of patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD). Thus, the federal government assumed fiscal responsibility for chronic dialysis and kidney transplantation. We sold the program by telling congress that it would save lives (true) and that it would not be very expensive (decidedly…
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The Ultimate Problem
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th February 2010The article below was originally published in 1983. I think it’s still relevant to any current discussion of euthanasia. It also appears under the Seminars in Nephrology Editorials. Mr. Lincoln (not his name) was a 54-year-old man with metastatic prostatic cancer and chronic renal failure. He had been on dialysis for a number of years…
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More on Gadolinium and NSF
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd July 2008More evidence mounts supporting the causal role of gadolinium containing MRI contrast agents and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in patients on dialysis. Two papers in the June 2008 issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases examine the issue. Kallen, et all report that “Receipt of gadolinium-containing MRI contrast is associated with NSF in a…
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