[Relationship between lethality of hemodialysis patients, erythropoietin dosage for renal anemia treatment and hemodialysis quality].

In December of 1999 and 2000 we visited all hemodialysis centers of Lithuania and collected data about all hemodialysis patients, using special questionnaires. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between lethality of hemodialysis patients, erythropoietin dosage for renal anemia treatment and hemodialysis quality. The patients with higher Kt/V, higher levels of iron and albumin, normal levels of phosphorus and parathyroid hormone (PTH) requested lower doses of erythropoietin (analysis of the patients who were on hemodialysis in 2000 more than 6 months). So, we can conclude that adequate hemodialysis procedure and good management of hemodialysis patient are leading to the decrease request of erythropoietin doses for anemia treatment. We compared two groups of patients in order to examine relationship between hemodialysis quality and lethality of hemodialysis patients. We selected incident patients registered in December of 1999 and we divided these patients in December of 2000 in two groups: a) 175 patients, who continued hemodialysis treatment and b) 41 patients, who died in 2000. The results revealed, that dead patients were elder, their duration of weekly hemodialysis was shorter, Hb concentration lower, they had worse nutritional status (blood albumin level was lower). Lethality was associated with underlying diseases such as diabetes, hypertensive nephropathy and renal amyloidosis.