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Primary Children's Hospital - Salt Lake City

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Our Dialysis Clinic

at Primary Children's Hospital

Kids piled on each other outside

Our staff provides your child with the best medical care possible. Your child's healthcare team will work together with you and your child to develop a treatment plan. 

Multidisciplinary Team

Each team member specializes in pediatrics and plays an important role in your child's treatment plan. In addition to board certified pediatric nephrologists, intensivists, and dialysis nurses, your child's pediatric dialysis team also includes the following: 

  • Pediatric renal dietitian
  • Pediatric renal social worker
  • Child life specialist
  • School teacher

Supportive Care

Pediatric dialysis specialists at Primary Children’s are committed to helping your child live as normally and comfortably as possible.

Kid-Friendly Environment

The Pediatric Dialysis Center was designed with children’s needs at the top of mind. The unit is a comfortable, caring space that helps nurture your child during treatment. The unit provides the following:

  • Music Therapy
  • Art Therapy
  • Games
  • One-on-one instruction with a school teacher

National Recognition

We are a member of the SCOPE (Standardized Care to Improve Outcomes in Pediatric Endstage Renal Disease) Dialysis Collaborative. The SCOPE Collaborative works to develop the most effective treatment plans for children who need dialysis. Our involvement with SCOPE helps us keep your child safe, prevent dialysis-related infections, and live a healthy, happy life.

Our Dialysis Center

What to expect

At Primary Children’s, your child will receive personalized care at the Dialysis Center. We offer the only onsite dialysis unit in Utah dedicated to children.

Inpatient treatments are administered when your child stays overnight for extra monitoring and are done at the child's bedside. 

Hemodialysis

Most kids begin dialysis treatments with hemodialysis, which uses a machine to pump blood through a tube into a special filter called a dialyzer. This machine filters out waste and extra fluid from the blood, and the filtered blood flows through another tube back into the body.

Peritoneal Dialysis (PD)

Peritoneal dialysis uses a dialysis solution — water with salt and other additives — that’s inserted into the belly through a catheter (tube) to soak up waste and extra fluid.

When the bag is empty, you can disconnect it and put a cap on the catheter, and your child can go about their usual activities. After a few hours, the used dialysis solution is drained into another bag, bringing the waste and extra fluid with it. The abdomen is always filled with some of the fluid, so the filtering process is continuous.

Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT)

CRRT is a slow, gentle, and continuous form of hemodialysis that removes larger amounts of fluid from the body and filters it slowly — similar to the pace of a healthy kidney. CRRT is used for patients who have low blood pressure, which can make circulating the blood and fluid during regular hemodialysis more difficult.

Once your child’s physicians have determined your child is stable enough to go home after dialysis treatments, outpatient dialysis can allow them to get back to their normal activities sooner, such as school and visiting with friends.

Our outpatient dialysis unit has five treatment stations for hemodialysis. Child-life specialists will make sure your child feels comfortable by providing books, video games, coloring supplies, and anything else that will put them at ease during dialysis.

Hemodialysis and Peritoneal dialysis are available in a home setting. In general, it is a simpler process for families to easily adjust to that can be accomplished with safety in mind. We will monitor your child’s treatments through regular in-person visits.

Home Education and Training

If you are doing dialysis treatments at home, pediatric dialysis specialists at Primary Children’s will work closely with you and your child to ensure that you have all the information and materials you need to successfully manage your child’s treatments as safely and effectively as possible.