| [ Summary ] |
Herein, dialysis treatment in Italy is briefly introduced. The author stayed in Florence, Venice and Rome to attend an international congress of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineering) for a week in June of 1996 and underwent HD treatments in these three cities. Going abroad is troublesome for a dialysis patient because of booking the HD sessions. On this occasion, the author requested that an itinerary and HD treatment bookings be made by a domestic travel company with connections to a HD hospital agency named "Holiday Services International".
In Italy, HD equipment is controlled by computer systems individually and the weight of the patient during dialysis is also controlled by scales attached to the bed. Generally speaking, the total HD method in Italy is very similar to that in Japan. However, we should be aware that many hospital staff members, except medical doctors, speak only Italian and can not communicate in English. |