Results of treatment of center hemodialysis patients

Abstract

Four hundred eighty-three patients were maintained by hemodialysis in an outpatient hemodialysis center at the Mayo Clinic between 1963 and 1977. Although only 18 patients had experienced a myocardial infarction and 6 had had a cerebral infarction before beginning dialysis, 30 subsequently had acute myocardial infarction and 45 had a stroke. These two complications accounted for 48 of the 98 deaths that occurred during maintenance dialysis. Despite such complications, 183 patients were employed, 124 remained active at home or at school, and 115 were totally disabled. Survival of patients maintained solely by dialysis was 52% at 5 years. For the group as a whole, including patients who received their first allograft, the survival rate at 5 years was 65%.