Long inter-dialytic interval and mortality among patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis for end-stage renal disease - A call for more studies on the right amount or frequency of maintenance haemodialysis for end-stage renal disease

摘要

The recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) by Foley et al. that demonstrated increased all-cause mortality, higher mortality from cardiac causes, higher hospital admission rates, increased stroke incidence and dysrhythmia among ESRD patients receiving haemodialysis three times a week, on the day after the long interval than on other days was very illuminating (1). The NEJM authors analysed 32,065 participants in the End-Stage Renal Disease Clinical Performance Measures Project, a nationally representative sample of U.S. patients receiving haemodialysis three times weekly, at the end of calendar years 2004 through 2007 (1).