Slovenian Renal Replacement Therapy Registry: excerpts from the 2008 Annual Report

This report provides a summary of the 2008 Slovenian Renal Replacement Therapy Registry Annual Report. Data on renal replacement therapy (RRT) were obtained from 20 dialysis centers and one transplant center, referring 31 December 2008, with 100% response rate to individual patient questionnaires. Slovenia has a population of approximately two million. The total number of patients treated by RRT was 1967, i.e. 968 per million of population (pmp), a 3.7% increase compared to 2007. In total, 1343 (68.3%) were treated by hemodialysis, 105 (5.3%) by peritoneal dialysis, and 519 (26.4%) had a functioning kidney graft. A total of 235 incident patients, 116 pmp (at day one), started RRT: their median age was 67 years, 61.8% were men, and 28% were diabetics. Regarding hemodialysis patients, 77% were dialyzed in hospital and 23% in private centers, 48% were treated with on-line hemodiafiltration and 74% with ultrapure dialysis fluid. The median weekly duration of hemodialysis was 13.5 hours, median dry body weight 68 kg, mean blood flow 283 ± 51 mL/min, and 9.2% were dialyzed using a single-needle mode. Vascular access was provided by a native arteriovenous fistula in 82%, a polytetrafluoroethylene graft in 6%, and a catheter in 12%. The crude death rate was 12.4% in dialysis patients, 1.4% in transplant recipients, and 9.4% in all RRT patients (both dialysis and transplant, incident patients at day 1 included). The longest survival on RRT is 38 years (with hemodialysis only). Slovenia has been a member of Eurotransplant since 2000; 52 kidney transplantations were performed in 2008, all from deceased donors.