Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, along with kidney transplantations, are forms of kidney substitution therapy. The year 1944 is considered the beginning of hemodialysis as a therapy in humans; then, in the Netherlands, Kolff et al. performed a series of hemodialytic procedures in acute renal failure. The first procedures of peritoneal dialysis were carried out in Switzerland, in 1927, by Heusser and Werder. Yet, only after a silasticol catherer had been introduced by Tenckhoff, the method became popular. In Poland, the first hemodialyses were performed in Poznań in 1958, and the first peritoneal dialyses – in Warsaw and Lublin. At a large scale, the dialytic therapy in Poland started to develop after 1992. In recent years a dialytic therapy centre has been established, among others, at Stalowa Wola; the author actively participated in its creation. A part of the centre was located at the existing hospital premises, but two dialysis rooms and the sluice were newly constructed. The equipment of the centre consists of 14 artificial kidney machines: 8 by Gambro and 6 by Fresenius, including one with the function of hemofiltration. On the opening, i.e. in January 2002, the centre had only 8 machines; in March and June the same year, supplementary purchases were made. In the first month, only 11 patients were dialysed, and 90 dialyses were performed. In June that year, however, the centre dialyzed 38 patients, and the number of dialyses was 445. At the end of the first year of work, we had 50 patients and 599 dialyses performed. The year 2003 brought further increase in the number of patients and, accordingly, of hemodialyses. In half a year we performed 5416 dialyses in 73 patients. Together, in 2003, the centre carried out 9696 dialyses.

The structure of the centre enables complex and logn-term care over patients with chronic kidney diseases, starting with diagnostics, through many years of ambulatory care, to the chronic dialytic therapy programme.