Ten-year survival of patients treated with peritoneal dialysis: A prospective observational cohort study

Background: Few studies evaluated over 5-year outcomes of dialysis patients. This study examined 10-year all-cause mortality and death-censored technique failure in a cohort of incident peritoneal dialysis (PD) individuals. Methods: Five hundred and thirty-three incident PD individuals from 2006 to 2008 were prospectively followed up for more than 10 years until 2018. Clinical characteristics at PD initiation were collected. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, and the secondary outcome was death-censored technique failure. Cox hazards models were fit using clinical characteristics at PD initiation. Results: The mean age starting PD for these participants was 48 ± 16 years; 130 (24%) patients had diabetic nephropathy. During follow-up, 208 patients died, and 84 patients experienced technique failures. The 1, 3, 5, and 10 years’ survival rates for incident PD patients were 93%, 81%, 64%, and 36%, respectively, and the technical survival rates were 98%, 93%, 85%, and 62%, respectively. Mortality risk was much higher after 3 years on PD. The peritonitis rate was 0.19 episodes per patient-year, and 7 (1.3%) patients had encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) giving an incidence rate of 3.1 of 1000 patient-years. The main causes of death were cardiovascular events (97 of 208, 47%), and technique failure was mainly due to peritonitis (41 of 84, 49%). Older age, higher Charlson comorbidity index, and lower level of education were strongly associated with mortality, and diabetic nephropathy was an independent risk factor for technique failure. Conclusions: The 10-year’s survival and technique survival rates of incident PD patients were 36% and 62%. Long-term PD can be continued successfully with improved outcomes and low risk for EPS.