{"id":12223,"date":"2024-09-01T16:20:25","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T16:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=12223"},"modified":"2024-09-01T16:23:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T16:23:28","slug":"dialysis-may-prolong-life-for-older-patients-but-not-by-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=12223","title":{"rendered":"Dialysis May Prolong Life for Older Patients. But Not by Much."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In one recent study, the challenging regimen added just 77 days of life over three years. Often, kidney disease can be managed in other ways.<\/p>\n

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Even before Georgia Outlaw met her new nephrologist, she had made her decision: Although her kidneys were failing, she didn\u2019t want to begin dialysis.<\/p>\n

Ms. Outlaw, 77, a retired social worker and pastor in Williamston, N.C., knew many relatives and friends with advanced kidney disease. She watched them travel to dialysis centers three times a week, month after month, to spend hours having waste and excess fluids flushed from their blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d come home weak and tired and go to bed,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a day until they feel back to normal, and then it\u2019s time to go back to dialysis again. I didn\u2019t want that regimen.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told her doctors, \u201cI\u2019m not going to spend my days bound to some procedure that\u2019s not going to extend my life or help me in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ms. Outlaw was mistaken on one point \u2014 dialysis can prolong the lives of patients with kidney failure. But a new study<\/a> published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine analyzed data from a simulated trial involving records from more than 20,000 older patients (average age: about 78) in the Veterans Health Administration system. It found that their survival gains were \u201cmodest.\u201d<\/p>\n

How modest? Over three years, older patients with kidney failure who started dialysis right away lived for an average of 770 days \u2014 just 77 days longer than those who never started it.<\/p>\n

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In one recent study, the challenging regimen added just 77 days of life over three years. Often, kidney disease can be managed in other ways.Even before Georgia Outlaw met her new nephrologist, she had made her decision: Although her kidneys were failing, she didn\u2019t want to begin dialysis.Ms. Outlaw, 77, a retired social worker and pastor in Williamston, N.C., knew many relatives and friends with advanced kidney disease. She watched them travel to dialysis centers three times a week, month after month, to spend hours having waste and excess fluids flushed from their blood.\u201cThey\u2019d come home weak and tired and go to bed,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a day until they feel back to normal, and then it\u2019s time to go back to dialysis again. I didn\u2019t want that regimen.\u201dShe told her doctors, \u201cI\u2019m not going to spend my days bound to some procedure that\u2019s not going to extend my life or help me in any way.\u201dMs. Outlaw was mistaken on one point \u2014 dialysis can prolong the lives of patients with kidney failure. But a new study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine analyzed data from a simulated trial involving records from more than 20,000 older patients (average age: about 78) in the Veterans Health Administration system. It found that their survival gains were \u201cmodest.\u201dHow modest? Over three years, older patients with kidney failure who started dialysis right away lived for an average of 770 days \u2014 just 77 days longer than those who never started it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12225,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12226,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223\/revisions\/12226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}