INTRODUCTION: The incidence and prevalence of treated end-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients continue to grow throughout the world. Renal transplantation remains the preferred form of renal substitutive therapy, but given the limited number of donors, dialytic therapies are the most common modalities. OBJECTIVES: To assess a registry of patients admitted for renal substitutive therapy at a single centre from 1984 to 2009. METHODS: This is a retrospective epidemiological study. The following were analyzed: demographic and clinical characteristics; incidence of CKD; underlying kidney disease; dialysis modalities; mortality; and causes of death. The variables were compared by using the chi-square test, Student t test, ANOVA, and Tukey test. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to estimate patient's survival. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In the period studied, 878 patients were admitted to dialysis. Their mean age was 47.0 ± 16.2 years, 549 (62.5%) were males, and 712 (81.1%) were white. The major cause of CKD was hypertension in 351 (40.0%) patients, diabetic nephropathy in 174 (19.8%), and chronic glomerulonephritis in 180 (20.5%) patients. The main dialytic modality was hemodialysis. The one-year mortality rate was 10.4%. The most common cause of death was cardiovascular, affecting 126 (34.6%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: The cohort of patients studied had a low mortality rate. Cardiovascular disease remains the most common cause of death in end-stage chronic kidney disease. Screening for cardiovascular disease is highly recommended for those patients.
chronic kidney disease; renal substitutive therapy; hemodialysis
