Abstract
Objective: Juntendo Tokyo Koto Geriatric Medical Center (KGMC) has been operated for more than ten years from June 1st, 2002. We analyzed and reviewed dialysis patients admitted to our hospital for ten years, and compared the results with a nationwide statistical survey performed at the end of 2012 in Japan.
Patients and Methods: The subjects were 2,011 patients (1,281 men and 730 women) undergoing maintenance dialysis from June 2002 to December 2012. There were 4 patients who underwent peritoneal dialysis (PD). We evaluated the each patient statistically every year, and analyzed the underlying disease and cause of death during hospitalization.
Results: The number of all and new dialysis patients over the ten-year period increased. The total number of new patients each year was 337 (226 men and 111 women) with the mean age of new patients at 70.8±11.4 years (69.0±11.3 for men vs. 74.4±10.5 for women) and that of all patients at 71.9±10.8 years (70.4±10.6 for men vs. 74.9±10.8 for women). The percentage distribution of all patients over the ten-year period who underwent dialysis according to the underlying disease showed that 58.3% had diabetic nephropathy (DN), 19.5% had nephrosclerosis (NS) and 10.5% had chronic glomerulonephritis (GN). The most frequent cause of death during hospitalization in all years was infection (22.6%), followed by malignancy (17.6%), and cardiac failure (16.0%).
Conclusions: The mean age of patients entering maintenance dialysis treatment decreased to 68.8±11.7 years in 2012 at KGMC, which was nearly in accordance with the mean age of dialysis patients in Japan. The recent increase in aged patients undergoing hemodialysis was attributed to the high incidence of DN. It has been the most common cause of end stage kidney disease (ESKD) in patients receiving chronic dialysis treatment, and this accounts for up to 50% of ESRD patients over the period.
