About this Medicine article

Optimal Timing of Initiation of Chronic Hemodialysis? by Barbara WILSON; Lori HARWOOD; Heather LOCKING‐CUSOLITO; Salina J. CHEN; Paul HEIDENHEIM; Don CRAIK; William F. CLARK is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

## Abstract Despite the availability of clinical guidelines for the timing of dialysis initiation in both the United States and Canada, patients continue to start dialysis at very low levels of predicted glomerular filtration rate (GFR). A cross‐sectional study was performed to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who started hemodialysis, their level of GFR, and mortality at 1 and 2 years following the initiation of dialysis. Retrospective data were collected on all eligible patients who commenced chronic hemodialysis in 1 tertiary care center in Canada from March 2001 to February 2005. Only those patients who had been followed by a nephrologist in the chronic kidney disease clinic before dialysis initiation were included (n=271). Seventeen percent of patients started hemodialysis late (GFR<5 mL/min/1.73 m^2^). Compared with the group of patients who started dialysis earlier, the late start group were significantly younger (p=0.008), had more females (p=0.013), more employed (p=0.051), less cardiac (p<0.001), and peripheral vascular disease (p=0.031), and were taking medication for hypertension (p=0.041). Serum albumin was lower in the late start grou

Author

Barbara WILSON; Lori HARWOOD; Heather LOCKING‐CUSOLITO; Salina J. CHEN; Paul HEIDENHEIM; Don CRAIK; William F. CLARK

Publisher

Wiley

Published

2007

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)