COVID-19 mortality alarmingly high in dialysis patients

Researchers in Spain have found in a new study that mortality among hospitalized dialysis patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection is strikingly high. Several laboratory parameters at day 7 after hospital admission could be used to assess the clinical outcome of these patients.

At the Opening Conference of the ERA-EDTA Congress, Dr. Maria Jose Soler Romeo presented data gathered at the Hospital Vall d'Hebron. Of 400 dialysis patients with the Vall d´Hebron as a reference hospital, 21 or a good 5% had COVID-19. In the whole of Spain, 238,000 out of 47 million people (about 0.5%) had contracted the disease at that time. The figures obtained from the Hospital Vall d'Hebron on the incidence of COVID-19 are not representative, of course, as it is only one center, but they do indicate a significantly higher rate of infection for dialysis patients. Of the 21 dialysis patients who contracted COVID-19, 15 were discharged, one was on the ICU at the time of the survey, and five had died. The mortality rate in this center was 24%.

This high death rate among infected dialysis patients was also verified in an analysis of the Spanish COVID-19 Dialysis/Transplantation Registry, which included a total of 1572 ESRD patients, including 998 HD patients, 51 PD patients and 523 kidney transplant patients. The mortality rate among HD patients was more than 27% for the whole Spain, but was also more than 23% for kidney transplant patients. PD patients had a significantly lower mortality rate of 15%, but their number is so small in proportion that it is almost impossible to make statistically valid statements about this patient group.