Impact of twice- or three-times-weekly maintenance hemodialysis on patient outcomes: A multicenter randomized trial

Aim: Maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) frequency is associated with survival and complication rates. Achieving the optimal balance between healthcare, quality of life (QOL), and medical costs is challenging. We compared complications, inflammatory status, nutritional status, and QOL between patients with different MHD frequencies. Material and Methods: This was a multicenter randomized trial of patients treated between May 2011 and August 2017 at 3 tertiary hospitals in Wenzhou. Patients were grouped according to their treatment schedule over 1 year: twice-weekly or 3-times-weekly. Complications, biochemistry parameters, and QOL (KDQOL-SFTM 1.3 scale) were assessed. Results: One hundred forty patients were included aged 29 to 68 years (mean age, 50.9 ± 4.3 years). There were no significant differences in infection, heart failure, or cerebral hemorrhage complications between the 2 groups (P = .664). Pre-dialysis hemoglobin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, serum albumin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, calcium, phosphate, parathyroid hormone, and ejection fraction were similar in both groups (P> .05). After 1 year of MHD, both groups exhibited significant improvements in these parameters (all P  .05), although a difference in BUN was observed between the 2 groups (P 
Source: Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Research Article: Clinical Trial/Experimental Study Source Type: research