[Mortality in hemodialysis unit in Togo]

To determine the epidemiological and etiologic aspects associated with the death of haemodialysis patients.

A cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted in the department of hemodialysis of the Sylvanus Olympio Teaching Hospital from July 2010 to December 2011 (18 months). The files of all the haemodialysis patients for chronic renal insufficiency of both sexes and all ages who died were included in our study.

153 patients were dialysed during our period of study, 48 died (mortality rate: 31,4%). On these 48 deaths, 36 files were retained. The average age of the patients was 48.3 years with extremes of 16 and 73 years. The age bracket from 35 to 65 years was the most affected with 77% of deaths. The patients of less than 35 years and those of more than 65 years represented respectively 16% and 5% of deaths. The sex-ratio was 3.5 (M:W). Regarding chronic pathologies, 36% had hypertension, 25% were diabetics and 31% were HIV-positive. Regarding anaemia, only 16.6% benefited from an occasional and irregular treatment by erythropoietin and the remaining 83.4% by blood transfusion. For the hemodialysis, 75% of patients had benefited from a central venous catheter (CVC) and 25% of an artério-venous fistula (FAV). On 27 patients having used a central venous catheter as vascular access, 20 died in the first year of dialysis (74%). Thirteen (13) of our patients had interrupted their sessions of hemodialysis. The causes of death were dominated by infections (16 cases) followed by cardiovascular diseases (11 cases) and acute anaemia (5 cases). Sixty one percent of the patients died less than one year after the beginning of the hemodialysis sessions; 11.1% after 2 years. The rate of survival of our patients was 50% after 6 months of dialysis, 33.3% after 1 year and only 8.3% after 2 years.

The mortality rate of haemodialysis is high in Togo with a very low survival a year following treatment. Infections played an important part in the death of haemodialysis patients partially due to the administration method, but more importantly cardiovascular and anemia.