Hospitalizations of hemodialysis patients (data of Kaunas University of Medicine Hospital in 2001)

The number of patients with end-stage renal disease is increasing, therefore the need of renal replacement therapy is increasing. Rising cost of treating end stage renal disease patients includes not only the cost of dialysis procedure but also the cost of hospitalizations and ambulatory medicamental treatment. There is no analysis done of hospitalizations of end-stage renal disease patients in Lithuania. Our purpose –\u96 to examine hospitalization rate, causes and duration in end-stage renal disease patients dialyzed in Kaunas University of Medicine Hospital. We analyzed ambulatory case records of all end-stage renal disease patients dialyzed in our clinic in November 2001. Retrospective data about diabetes, ischemic heart disease, Karnofsky score, hospitalization rate and causes of hospitalizations were collected. Hospitalizations of the year 2001 analyzed separately. The study included 111 patients. There were 123 hospitalizations in 75 patients, 1967 total hospital redays. Admission rate was 1.34±1.5 per patient year, 19.82±25.96 hospital days per patient year, the mean length of each hospitalization \u96 16.26±11.57. Most frequent causes of hospitalization –\u96 start of hemodialysis, infections, other causes, rare cause \u96 hemodialysis complications. Karnofsky score correlated negatively with duration of hospitalizations per patient year. No statistically signifficant correlation was found between duration of hospitalizations and the presence of diabetes, ischemic heart disease, the way of starting hemodialysis (urgent or not). In comparison with other countries, in our center there were less hospitalizations but longer hospital days per admission