Renal Replacement Therapy in Slovenia: Excerpts From 2013 Data

This report provides a summary of the 2013 Slovenian renal replacement therapy (RRT) data, obtained from 24 renal centers: 23 dialysis and one transplant center, referring from 31 December 2013, with 100% response rate to individual patient questionnaires. Slovenia had a population of 2 061 085 on 1 January 2014. The total number of patients treated by RRT was 2077, i.e. 1008.3 per million of population (pmp); 1349 (65%) were treated by hemodialysis, 52 (2.5%) by peritoneal dialysis, and 676 (32.5%) had a functioning kidney graft. A total of 260 incident patients, 126.2 pmp (at day one), started RRT, their median age was 69 years, 59.8% were men,. 58.5% of hemodialysis patients were treated with on-line hemodiafiltration. Vascular access was arteriovenous fistula in 79%, polytetrafluoroethylene graft in 8%, and catheter in 13% of patients, mean blood flow 276 ± 41 mL/min, 5.5% dialyzed in a single-needle mode. The crude death rate was 11.4% in all RRT patients (incident patients day 1 included, 15.9% in hemodialysis, 12.3% in peritoneal dialysis, 2.1% in transplant recipients). 60 kidney transplantations were performed in 2013, from deceased donors.