Since our blood would clot outside the body, anti-coagulation is needed for haemodialysis. This will cause problems if the patient is already bleeding in some part of the body. It is possible to use ‘saline flush’ technique to perform the dialysis without using heparin. It is useful in circumstances like immediately after a major surgical operation. An alternative is to use a special ‘heparin coated’ dialyser in which the membrane is coated with a layer of heparin.
Ms Wong Sui Lan and Ms Hannah Yuen explained the details of such heparin free techniques