Table 1.

Major dialysis emergencies

Type of Emergency	Estimated Frequency, per Million HD Sessions	Refs.
Dialysis disequilibrium
Air embolism	8.5–33	Tennankore et al. (31), Wong et al. (32)
Hemolysis
Vascular access hemorrhage
Venous needle dislodgement	14–91	Tennankore et al. (31), Wong et al. (32), VA study (65), Pennsylvania patient safety study (64)
Allergic reaction	21–170	Villarroel and Ciarkowski (71), Daugirdas et al. (72), Simon et al. (129)
Cardiac arrest	70	Karnik et al. (2)
Errors in following the HD prescription

HD, hemodialysis.