Nutritional assessment of patients on hemodialysis in a large dialysis center

Management of the nutritional aspects of chronic kidney disease (CKD) presents a number of challenges. This study was performed to assess the nutritional status among patients on maintenance hemodialysis at the Prince Salman Center for Kidney Diseases, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The study included 200 patients with a mean age of 50 ± 16 years; there were 108 males (54%) and 92 females (46%). Nutritional assessment was made by the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) score. In the present study, 4% of the patients were found to be underweight, 49% had average weight, 27.5% were overweight, 14% were obese, and 5.5% had morbid obesity. Severe malnutrition by SGA significantly correlated with duration on dialysis, functional capacity, and associated co-morbid diseases. The number of patients included in this study was small and we recommend multi-center studies with a larger number of patients for better evaluation. Also, we recommend a survival trial to evaluate the relationship between low serum albumin and patient survival in the Saudi population.