Evaluation of dialysis adequacy in hemodialysis patients: A systematic review

Hemodialysis is the common kidney replacement therapy in Iran. Doing an adequate and effective dialysis can improve patients' quality of life and reduce kidney failure complications. Additionally, dialysis quality is an important factor in reducing mortality in patients with chronic kidney failure. This systematic review has investigated the adequacy of dialysis in studies done on hemodialysis patients of Iran.

All articles related to the dialysis adequacy in hemodialysis patients in English and Farsi (contemporary Persian) were identified by searching the related keywords in various electronic databases. According to the inclusion criteria 21 studies were identified. The results were analyzed using Stata software version 11.

A number of 6677 patients had been enrolled in 21 studies that were chosen for this systematic review. Based on the random effects model, the overall dialysis adequacy (KT/V) (K: clearance of urea, T: duration of dialysis, V: distribution of urea) more than 1.2 and confidence interval were 36.3% and 46.2-26.4, respectively. Also, based on random effects model more than 65% urea reduction ratio in all studies was 28.8% and the confidence interval was 43.3-14.4.

KT/V and urea reduction ratio were much less desirable in hemodialysis patients and the dialysis quality was also undesirable. It seems that inadequate dialysis prescription, use of inappropriate filters, low pump speed (blood flow speed), and the short duration and few times of dialysis are the major causes of this inadequacy. .