Introduction:
Kidney disease has become a major concern and an important public health issue that affects millions around the world. Today, hemodialysis is the main renal replacement treatment for ESRD in most african countries. The objective of this study was to identify the causes of death in dialysis patients who visited our dialysis center at Ngaoundere Regional Hospital in Cameroon, since its inauguration in January 2023 to August 31, 2024.
Methods:
It was a cross-sectional study. Demographic and clinical data were collected from the hemodialysis center registeries, including age, gender, primary cause of CKD, date of first dialysis, outcome (death) and date of outcome, and comorbidities.
Results:
Of 170 patients who starting dialysis in our center in one and half year, 52 died (19 women and 33 men) with a mortality rate of 30.58 %. The mean age was 46.8 years. The identified causes of death were grouped into six categories: infectious, cardiac, withdrwal from dialysis, sudden, earlier (less than 24 hours after inititiation) and "other." The major cause of death was withdrawal from dialysis from 14 patients (26.92%), followed by cardiovascular diseases (pulmonary edema, sudden cardiac arrest, pulmonary embolism, heart failure and anemia) for 10 patients (19.23 %). Infectious causes accounted for 7 patients (13,46%). Notably, six of the death patients had underlyieng cancer, and five patients died less than 24 hours after their first dialysis session with one following a suicide. From the 52 deaths, 20 happened at home and only 7 were related to acute kidney injury.
Conclusions:
The leading cause of death during of first 18 months of service was withdrwal (abandonment) of dialysis. Multiple factors should be considered when initiating and formulating patients dialysis regimens. Underlying clinical conditions is important but cultural, social, religious and patients/family limitations (fears, limited financial ressources...) should be considered to reduce mortaity in dialysis.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.
I did not use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.