Survival and hospitalization for intensive home hemodialysis compared with kidney transplantation.
Canadian patients receiving intensive home hemodialysis (IHHD; ≥16 hours per week) have survival comparable to that of deceased donor kidney transplant recipients in the United States, but a comparison with Canadian kidney transplant recipients has not been conducted. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive, adult IHHD patients and kidney transplant recipients between 2000 and 2011 at a large Canadian tertiary care center. The primary outcome was time-to-treatment failure or death for IHHD patients compared with expanded criteria, standard criteria, and living donor recipients, and secondary outcomes included hospitalization rate. Treatment failure was defined as a permanent switch to an alternative dialysis modality for IHHD patients, and graft failure for transplant recipients. The cohort comprised 173 IHHD patients and 202 expanded criteria, 642 standard criteria, and 673 living donor recipients. There were 285 events in the primary analysis. Transplant recipients had a reduced risk of treatment failure/death compared with IHHD patients, with relative hazards of 0.45 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.31 to 0.67) for living donor recipients, 0.39 (95% CI, 0.26 to 0.59) for standard criteria donor recipients, and 0.42 (95% CI, 0.26 to 0.67) for expanded criteria donor recipients. IHHD patients had a lower hospitalization rate in the first year of treatment compared with standard criteria donor recipients and in the first 3 months of treatment compared with living donor and expanded criteria donor recipients. In this cohort, kidney transplantation was associated with superior treatment and patient survival, but higher early rates of hospitalization, compared with IHHD.
Division of Nephrology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; ktennankore@gmail.com.
Karthik K
KK
Tennankore
Division of Nephrology, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Division of Nephrology, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;
S Joseph
SJ
Kim
Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; and Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston Massachusetts.
Heather J
HJ
Baer
Division of Nephrology, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;
Christopher T
CT
Chan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006437:Hemodialysis, Home / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality*; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers; D017211:Treatment Failure; D016896:Treatment Outcome