Prevalence, risk factors and impact on outcomes of 30-day unexpected rehospitalization in incident peritoneal dialysis patients

Epidemiology of End-Stage Renal Disease in Mogadishu, Somalia: First Report at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) in Somalia remains unexamined due to a lack of a national registry system, and the impact of the disease in the country is not estimated yet. The present study is the first report that aims to evaluate the epidemiological characteristics, causes, and dialysis-related factors associated with readmissions in ESRD patients who were going to routine hemodialysis.

Patients and methods

This cross-sectional observational study enrolled 208 patients with ESRD. Also, this study investigated patients readmitted to the hospital (n=135) after they enrolled in hemodialysis. The sociodemographic characteristics, risk factors, and comorbidities associated with these patients were reviewed. Admission site, length of hospital stay, outcome, and dialysis-related factors associated with readmissions in the first six months after being on a regular hemodialysis program were also assessed.

Results

The mean age of the patients was 52.7±15.0 years, 43.3% were >60 years, and 61.5% were male. The most common cause was diabetes at 39.4%, followed by hypertension (35.6%) and 12.5% for postrenal obstruction. The prevalence of 6-month hospital readmissions was 65%. The most common dialysis-related factor associated with readmissions was uremic complications due to missed hemodialysis sessions (40%), vascular access/catheter infection (20%), and anemia (17.8%) (95% CI: 0.825–5.357, OR: 3.017, p<0.04). Female cases were more vulnerable to vascular catheter site infection, anemia, and hyponatremia (p<0.001). 27.5% of the patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and the most common reason for ICU admissions was pulmonary edema (53.8%), sepsis (42.8%), and uremia due to hemodialysis skip (26.4%) (95% CI: 1.507–13.632, OR: 2.08, p=0.01). The mortality rate was 5.2%.

Conclusion

The prevalence of unplanned hospital readmissions within six months was very high, and a missed hemodialysis session was identified as the leading cause. Inadequate knowledge, wrong social beliefs about the concept of dialysis and a lack of a health insurance system that covers the higher costs of each dialysis session are believed to be the causes of missed dialysis occasions.

Platelet-to-albumin ratio: a risk factor associated with technique failure and mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients

Background

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients have a high incidence of poor clinical outcomes, which is related to the inflammatory and nutritional status of this population. Platelet-to-albumin ratio (PAR), recently identified as a useful biomarker to monitor inflammation and nutrition, can predict a poor prognosis in various diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between PAR and technique failure and mortality in PD patients.

Methods

This single-center retrospective study enrolled 405 PD patients from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2019 and collected complete demographic characteristics, clinical laboratory baseline data. The outcomes were technique failure and mortality. The associations between PAR and technique failure, death were analyzed by Cox proportional hazard models and competing risk regression models with kidney transplantation as a competing event. The areas under the curve (AUC) of receiver-operating characteristic analysis were used to determine the predictive values of PAR for technique failure and mortality.

Results

During a median follow-up period of 24.0 (range, 4.0–91.0) months, 139 (34.3%) PD patients experienced technique failure, 61 (15.1%) PD patients died. The patients with higher PAR levels had increased risk of technique failure and mortality. After adjustment for confounding factors, we found that high PAR levels were risk factor for both technique failure (subdistribution hazard ratio [SHR] 1.775; 95%CI, 1.157–2.720; p = 0.033] and mortality [SHR 3.710; 95%CI, 1.870–7.360; p < 0.001]. The predictive ability of PAR was superior to platelet and albumin based on AUC calculations for technique failure and mortality.

Conclusions

PAR was a risk factor associated with technique failure and mortality in PD patients.