The use of urea kinetics as basis for optimization and individualization of renal replacement therapy has become quite popular over the last decade. The rationale underlying the use of blood urea nitrogen for monitoring or targeting dialysis therapy is based on the report of an American multicentre cooperative dialysis study showing that blood urea nitrogen concentrations are closely correlated to the occurrence of morbidity and complications in dialysis patients. In order to further optimize the accuracy of dialysis prescription we have developed a new algorithm for estimation of the dialysis time needed to reach a certain blood urea nitrogen concentration, which--in contrast to all methods employed so far--enables accurate calculation of ultrafiltration during haemodialysis and of weight changes in the interdialytic period.