End-Stage Renal Disease

ECMC Corp. is Western New York's leading provider of End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) services. Renal Services at ECMC Corp. include a newly renovated 10-bed inpatient hemodialysis unit and the major kidney transplant service in Western New York.

Services provided through the ESRD program are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis (two types of blood-cleansing methods) and renal (kidney) transplantation. Renal/hypertension clinical services are conducted on a weekly basis. Patients must be referred by their primary care physician. Specialty services are provided for individuals with difficult-to-control high blood pressure, blood or protein in urine, kidney stones or infections and poor kidney function. Pregnant women with kidney problems are also treated within the department. Patients are informed of their disease process and taught about the forms of dialysis that are available to them. A dietician also advises patients about low salt intake and diets for those who have experienced kidney failure.

The ECMC Corp. Renal Services Department is an academic environment as well. It is the main SUNY at Buffalo site for the training of future nephrologists. The Renal Services Department has a long record of nationally recognized research with particular concentrations in the causes and consequences of high blood pressure in pregnancy, the causes of progressive kidney failure, the management of viral illness in kidney transplants and the metabolism of drugs in patients with impaired kidney function.

ECMC Corp. is a participant in the ESRD Network of New York, which includes 15 transplant hospitals and 112 dialysis facilities for more than 10,000 ESRD patients throughout New York State.