Abstract
The recirculation phenomenon is well known in dialysis community namely because its negative connotation as a sign of vascular access dysfunction and - as a consequence - lowered dialysis efficiency. Yet its physical bonds and differing conjunctions of both recirculation types - vascular access recirculation and cardiopulmonary recirculation - with dialysis operation parameters and physiology of patient s cardiovascular system alike are known much less.
The article aims to fill in this gap. Besides quantification of negative impacts of recirculation, it discusses also possibilities of its clinically interesting utilization to assess functional condition of the access (by means of vascular access blood flow) and status of patient s cardiovascular system (by means of cardiac output and its interdialytic changes).