Clinical Outcomes of Peritoneal Dialysis Patients at a Secondary State Hospital Nephrology Clinic

OBJECTIVE: We present our experience with demographics, clinical and biochemical outcomes, and factors affecting mortality in ESRD patients treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD) during a 12-year period (1997–2009) at secondary state hospital’s nephrology clinic. MATERIAL and METHODS: After excluding patients younger than age 15 at the initiation of PD, those who had follow-ups at less than three months, outcomes were analyzed for 313 patients. The demographic, clinical, and biochemical data were collected from the patients’ medical records. RESULTS: The mean age at the start of PD was 51.9 ± 17.6 years and the mean PD duration was 27.5 ± 27.1 months (median: 20, range: 3–166). Hypertension was the most common cause of ESRD (36.1%), followed by diabetes mellitus (31.3%). Among these 313 patients, 58 (18.5%) died. Patients’ survival rates were 93.3%, 85%, and 72.4%, at one, three, and five years, respectively. A higher educational level (p=0.045), lower age (p=0.002), higher baseline creatinine (p=0.045), and higher baseline albumin level (p=0.003) were found to affect patients’ survival. Technique survival rates were 89.1%, 84%, and 74.1% at one, three and five years, respectively. Technique failure was associated with peritonitis rate (p=0.03). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that patients’ and technique survival rates and the factors affecting mortality in our patients at a secondary state hospital’s nephrology clinic were similar to those at a tertiary care university hospital’s nephrology clinic in Turkey.