Intermittent outpatient ultrafiltration for the treatment of severe refractory congestive heart failure.

Background: Patients with severe congestive heart failure (CHF) become refractory to conventional medical therapy, leading to recurrent rehospitalizations. We examined the impact of intermittent outpatient ultrafiltration (UF), using either peritoneal dialysis or hemofiltration, on long-term clinical outcomes in patients with refractory CHF.

Methods And Results: We analyzed clinical and hemodynamic data in 19 consecutive patients with refractory CHF who received intermittent outpatient UF for at least 1 year between July 1998 and November 2002.