Military Hospital 120: Young people on dialysis increased 3 times

On July 14, Lieutenant Colonel, Doctor Luong Thi Rang - Head of the Kidney Dialysis Department at Military Hospital 120 - said: "Unlike other diseases, the life of patients with end-stage kidney failure almost depends on dialysis.

Long-term, continuous treatment is very expensive, while the patient's health is at the stage of running the machine, just breathing is difficult and tiring. It is worth mentioning that chronic kidney failure is increasing and getting younger."

According to statistics from the dialysis department of Military Hospital 120, in the first 6 months of 2025, out of 412 patients currently being treated at the dialysis center from the Western provinces, 144 were under 45 years old, accounting for 30% (this rate was 10% in 2015, 16% in 2020). The youngest patient was only 17 years old, but had been on dialysis for 7 years.

Doctor Rang said the main cause of increasing kidney failure, especially among young people in the Western region today, is due to improper use of medication, use of traditional medicine, herbal medicine, and functional foods.

Some adults with kidney disease are often due to high blood pressure, glomerular disease, polycystic kidney, solitary kidney, diseases such as kidney stones. And elderly patients are often due to diabetes, high blood pressure...

Currently, the kidney dialysis department of Military Hospital 120 is performing dialysis for about 400 patients, working 3 shifts/day, except Sundays.

There were times when the department received many new patients from other hospitals asking for help with dialysis during water maintenance and machine repair; with such an increase in the number of patients, the department had to arrange staff to work 4 shifts/day to meet the needs of the patients.

To reduce the risk of kidney disease, Dr. Luong Thi Rang recommends: If it is due to an underlying disease, control the treatment of the underlying disease well (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.), but if it is due to taking the wrong medicine, avoid taking traditional medicine, Chinese medicine, and functional foods. Especially: have a regular health check-up every year to control your health and treat the disease promptly.