Current aspects of osteoarticular pathology in patients undergoing hemodialysis: study of 80 patients. Part 1. Clinical and radiological analysis.

Eighty patients undergoing longterm hemodialysis were evaluated for joint function and radiographic abnormalities. Mean age of the population was 53 years, and mean duration of dialysis was 76 months (24 patients underwent dialysis for more than 10 years). Fifty-eight patients (72%) had joint symptoms; nonspecific arthralgia was the most frequent. Fifteen patients had morning stiffness and interrupted sleep due to arthralgias (shoulders 9, fingers 3) and 10 patients had diminished finger mobility. Radiographic evaluation showed 7 classes of lesions which are not characteristic of renal osteodystrophy or degenerative lesions, including erosive arthropathies of the fingers (8%), multiple carpal bone cysts (10%), cysts of the humeral head (9%), cysts of the hip (11%), erosive spondyloarthropathies (9%), cervical spondylolisthesis (5%) and multiple diaphyseal lacunae (1%). Overall, 42 distinct radiological lesions were observed in a total population of 23 patients. Twenty-nine of these lesions occurred in patients undergoing dialysis for at least 10 years. Certain clinical and radiological patterns were frequently combined after dialysis for more than 10 years: carpal tunnel syndrome, inflammatory joint pain, bone cysts and spondyloarthropathies.