Do the benefits of medications outweigh the burdens for hemodialysis patients?

摘要

A recent study reported that patients on hemodialy-sis are prescribed an average of 11 different medications with a mean daily burden of 19 pills.1 Yet few randomized controlled trials support the efficacy of these medications in the dialysis population, in part because these patients are usually excluded from trials. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors are commonly used in the dialysis population to control hypertension and heart failure; li-sinopril was the seventh most commonly prescribed drug among hemodialysis patients in the United States in 2008, according to the 2011 Annual Data Report from the United States Renal Data System.