Survival of elderly dialysis patients is not dependent on modality or "older" age

While discussing renal replacement therapy, the choice of modality and survival on dialysis are important considerations. These issues are even more important in elderly group of patients. We studied the survival and factors affecting survival of our elderly dialysis patients. All incident patients who started dialysis from November 2006 to March 2014 were considered for inclusion. Patients who initiated dialysis at or >65 years of age and had completed 90 days of dialysis were included. Overall survival of elderly dialysis patients was determined. Patients were divided into two groups based on the modality of dialysis and age: elderly (65-70 years) and older (>70 years). The baseline data and survival were then compared between groups. Mean age of the study population was 71.8 ± 6 years with 73.8% males, and 71.4% had diabetes. Median overall survival of the patients was 26.6 months. Median survival of elderly dialysis patients was 26.5 months and of older dialysis patients was 30.1 months (P = 0.9). Median survival of hemodialysis and PD patients was also similar (30.1 and 25.2 months respectively. Multivariate analysis showed diabetes as the only determining factor affecting survival (P = 0.01). To conclude, there is no difference between survival of elderly and "older" or between elderly hemodialysis and PD patients.