NxStage Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTM) is encouraging patients to take control of their dialysis therapy and consider home hemodialysis in the wake of a new study that found patient survivability rates are significantly higher with home hemodialysis (HHD) than peritoneal dialysis (PD). The Incident Cohort Study, the first of its size, was completed by the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplantation Registry and shows that the five-year survival rate for HHD is at 85 percent while the survival rate for PD patients is just 44 percent. A leading manufacturer of dialysis products, NxStage, believes the recent findings should inspire dialysis patients to ask their healthcare providers about home hemodialysis therapy with the System One. Currently, less than two percent of dialysis patients in the U.S. are performing HHD, versus approximately 9% performing PD.

"These data clearly show that excellent long-term survival can be achieved in patients that are prescribed home hemodialysis within 90 days of starting maintenance dialysis," said Dr. Eric Weinhandl, epidemiologist and lead investigator on multiple published studies on home dialysis clinical outcomes as part of the Chronic Disease Research Group. "Interestingly, the survival advantage of HHD over PD was evident in multiple frames, including younger and older patients, non-diabetics and diabetics, and early and late follow-up."

Historically, studies comparing clinical outcomes between peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis have been limited. The Incident Cohort Study was the largest of its kind and assessed all Australian and New Zealand adult patients receiving home dialysis on day 90 after initiation of renal replacement therapy between 2000 and 2012. It included 10,710 patients on incident peritoneal dialysis and 706 patients on incident home hemodialysis and found that the risk of death-censored technique failure for HHD was 66 percent lower than PD. Directionally, these results were very consistent with recent presentations of survival and technique survival on NxStage HHD patients vs. PD in the US published by Weinhandl at the 2014 ASN Renal Week and 2015 NKC Spring Clinical Meeting.

"This strong clinical data backs the efficacy of HHD and affirms the results of recent studies," said NxStage President, Joe Turk. "These results further reinforce the need for clinicians to consider HHD as a first strategy for incident patients, not just when PD fails."

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