They can see how it works, but, they are concerned about the risk of contamination. While I was on dialysis today, I tried to see just how possible it would be to do this. With my upper arm fistula, I would not have enough arterial needle line length to be able to do this. It’s too short to comfortably reach my hand. Because of that, I remove my own needles by attaching a scissor clamp near the end of the needle line, so I can grasp one of the hole with my thumb and like that, pull the needle out.
Pierre I am a self dialyzer also with upper arm needles. My needles have at least 12" of tubing attached so there is no problem doing this with them. I even have a longer venous needle which is a real special order, (I would think you would have more trouble with venous since it should be above the arterial). I believe they are experimenting with manufacturing them, but I’ve had them for 5 months. My fistula is in my left arm, I hold the site with my right hand and remove the needles by pulling on the tubing with my left hand. FWIW I can get both sharp and dull/buttonhole needles with the long and longer tubing.
I leave both needles in and taped until all blood is returned, then I reconnect the dialysate lines and start the acid rinse. While the acid rinse is going I take my needles out and then by the time it is done (I clot quickly in spite of using 7.8cc of heparin in 4 hours), the acid rinse is finishing up and I reconnect for the heat disinfect and do the clean up.
Finally, I am sure if they consult with Fresenius they would be happy to train them in this method. It sure works well for me as a self dialyzer and someone who thinks the risk of contamination is much less than the risk of getting air.