Abstract
A statistical analysis was performed on 243 cases of chronic hemodialysis patients at our hospital during the 22 years from 1971 to 1992. The average age was 54.8 years, and the male to female ratio was 1.59:1.00. The primary diseases of these patients were chronic glomerulonephritis in 35.4%, diabetic nephropathy in 23.9%, nephrosclerosis in 10.7%, polycystic kidney in 7.0% and pyelonephritis in 4.9% of patients. Diabetic nephropathy and nephrosclerosis have increased in recent years. Compared to the 1971-1982 period, the average age increased from 50.7 to 57.3 years in the 1983-1992 period, and the percentage of diabetic nephropathy rose from 11.8 to 30.4%. Hematocrit at the beginning of dialysis was decreased significantly from 24.2 to 21.5% between the first and second period, but the transfusion volume decreased from 1.7 to 1.0 unit per month. Actual 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates for all patients were 77.5%, 62.7%, and 47.2%, respectively. The rates were significantly lower in patients with diabetic nephropathy and nephrosclerosis than in those with glomerulonephritis. The causes of death were cardiovascular disease in 40.2%, cerebral vascular disease in 14.5%, infection in 12.8% and malignant tumors in 6.8% of patients. Fourteen patients showed complications with malignant tumor during maintenance hemodialysis. Tumors of the gastrointestinal and urinary tract organs were found most frequently (8 and 5 cases, respectively).
