Analysis of causes of death in elderly patients undergoing hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To compare death causes and the survival time in elderly patients undergoing hemodialysis versus peritoneal dialysis in the nephrology department of Beijing Hospital in the last 10 years.Methods:This was a retrospective study.Patients aged more than 60 years who had undergone dialysis and died in the dialysis center of Beijing Hospital between January 2010 and January 2019 were enrolled.A detailed medical history including gender, age, primary diseases, diabetes mellitus, time of dialysis initiation, time of death and direct cause of death were recorded.Results:A total of 153 elderly dialysis patients were enrolled, with a mean age of 76.6±7.7 years, a median dialysis vintage of 54.1(26.9, 86.4)months, including 83(54.2%)cases with diabetes.Patients were divided into the hemodialysis group(HD, n=114)and the peritoneal dialysis group(PD, n=39)according to the dialysis method.The mean ages of patients in the HD and PD groups were 77.1±7.9 and 75.0±7.0 years, and the median dialysis vintages were 56.5(27.4, 104.2)and 48.3(26.3, 66.6)months, respectively.The primary diseases of patients undergoing HD and PD were diabetic nephropathy(DN, 32.5% vs.48.7%), chronic glomerulonephritis(29.8% vs.17.9%)and hypertensive renal damage(21.1% vs.10.3%). The top three causes of mortality in patients undergoing HD and PD were cardiovascular diseases(32.4% vs.43.6%), infections(29.8% vs.28.2%)and cerebrovascular diseases(11.4% vs.15.4%). The compositions of primary diseases and death causes were similar between the two groups, with no significant difference.Kaplan-Meier curves indicated that the survival time of dialysis patients with diabetes mellitus was shorter than that of patients without diabetes mellitus(chi-square value was 12.829, P<0.001), and the survival time of HD patients was longer than that of PD patients(chi-square value was 8.161, P=0.004). In patients without diabetes mellitus, the survival time of HD patients was longer than that of PD patients( Z=-2.716, P=0.007). In patients with diabetes mellitus, HD and PD had similar survival outcomes( Z=-0.581, P=0.561). Conclusions:The proportion of patients with diabetic nephropathy is high in elderly dialysis patients.Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and infections are the main causes of death in elderly dialysis patients.The survival time is longer in HD patients than in PD patients.