Clinical characteristics of newly increased elderly patients with maintenance hemodialysis

Objective To explore the clinical characteristics of newly increased maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients in single center, in order to provide decision-making basis for improving the quality of chronic renal failure in the region.Methods Eighty-three newly increased MHD patients conformed to the standard were enrolled in this study. The 41 patients aged over 65 years old were assigned to the elderly group, and the 42 patients aged below 65 years old served as the control group. The primary diseases, clinical and laboratory indicators, vascular access and major clinical manifestations were compared between the two groups.Results The mean age of the 41 elderly patients was (72.8±4.6) years old, (23 males and 18 females) the ratio of male to female was 1.28:1, the most common primary disease was hypertension (n=15, 36.59%), followed by diabetes (n=12, 29.27%) and primary glomerular disease (n=9, 21.95%). The control group ranked the top three primary disease were primary glomerular disease (n=19, 45.24%), diabetes (n=8, 19.05%) and polycystic kidney (n=6, 14.29%). There was statistically significant difference in primary disease composition between the two groups (P<0.05). The hemoglobin and glomerular filtration rate in the elderly group were significantly higher (P<0.05), and the blood phosphorus and diastolic blood pressure were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between the two groups in systolic blood pressure, serum albumin, fasting blood glucose, low density lipoprotein, blood corrected calcium and intact parathyroid hormone. There was no significant difference in the composition of vascular access between the groups for the first-time hemodialysis (P>0.05), and most patients used central venous catheters.Conclusions The most common primary diseases of newly increased MHD patients are hypertension and diabetes in the elderly group. The residual renal function, hemoglobin level, blood phosphorus level and diastolic blood pressure are superior to those in the control group. The selection of vascular access and the main clinical manifestations are not special. The study also enables us to recognize that timely dialysis treatment for elderly patients in the area can achieve similar therapeutic effects to young and middle-aged patients.