[Analysing cause of death in chronically hemodialyzed patients]

The documentation was analysed of 123 haemodialysed patients dying in the years 1984-1990 in nine extracorporeal dialysis centres in the Provinces of Bielsko, Czestochowa and Katowice. Among the dying haemodialysed patients were 61 men and 62 women. The mean age of these patients was 43.7 +/- 1.0 years. The mean time from starting the haemodialysis therapy to death was 29.2 +/- 3.9 months. Mortality among the haemodialysed patients in individual years ranged from 6.5 to 14.4% and was 9.7% on the average. The most frequent death causes in this group of patient in the studied time period were infections (45.5%) and cardiovascular complications (35%). The results of the analysis of death causes in haemodialysed patients suggest the need of constant monitoring of the risk factors contributing to the development of infections and cardiovascular complications.