Survival and Analysis of Predictors of Mortality in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis in a Rural Hospital in Puducherry, India: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background Despite the advent of dialysis technology, the survival of patients on hemodialysis (HD) is not encouraging. There is little information available regarding the prognostic factors of HD, its population characteristics, or outcomes in India. Objectives We attempted to describe the profile of patients on HD, estimate the mean days of their survival and to determine the various factors associated with their survival. Materials and Methods It was a retrospective cohort study conducted on patients who were on maintenance HD, registered during the five-year period between 1st January 2014 and 31st December 2018 in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Rural Puducherry, South India. Demographic, hematological, biochemical, electrocardiographic, echocardiographic parameters and death during follow-up were extracted from the dialysis database after de-identification. The survival rate was calculated using Kaplan- Meier Curves and Cox Regression analysis was done to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio. Results The median survival of the 229 eligible patients on HD was 819 days. Cardiac pathology accounted for 25.7% of those deaths and 33.9% was sudden death. Adjusted Cox proportional model showed the presence of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH) (HR: 78.1), increase in phosphorus (HR: 1.26), decrease in haemoglobin (HR: 0.78), and decrease in serum albumin (HR: 0.52) were significant bad prognostic factors. Conclusion Screening for LVH, anemia, hypoaluminemia and hyperphosphatemia amongst HD patients and managing them to prevent these bad prognostic factors has the potential to improve their survival.