The clinical effects of recombinant human erythropoietin for the treatment of anemia in end stage renal disease patients on dialysis.

It has been widely accepted that recombinant human erythropoietin can improve renal anemia which in turn eliminates several complications that occur from giving blood transfusions repeatedly in chronic dialysis patients. While there are few studies of erythropoietin administration via the subcutaneous route, such studies have reported different results from the intravenous route traditionally recommended in the literature. We set a cross-over technique to assess the results and adverse effects of erythropoietin administered by different routes in two groups of our chronic hemodialysis and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients. The purposes of this study were: 1) to verify the effectiveness of erythropoietin; 2) to test whether the subcutaneous route yields the same results as the intravenous route and if there is no difference, we will choose the former for the benefit and compliance of our patients; and 3) to find out any adverse effects.