Patient survival on PAN/AN69 membrane hemodialysis: a ten-year analysis.

Survival characteristics over a 10-yr period of 352 patients on hemodialysis (HD) with polyacrylonitrile membranes in a single center were retrospectively analyzed and compared with national data collected by the U.S. Renal Data System (USRDS). Only those patients who stayed on HD for longer than 3 months were included. Any outcome other than death was considered as lost to follow-up. The number of expected deaths in the entire patient population according to the USRDS data base was 203, whereas the observed actual rate was only 132, reaching high statistical significance. Several subgroups of patients, stratified on the basis of age and time on starting HD, diabetes mellitus as the cause of original renal disease, etc., also exhibited significantly better survival. HD with a biocompatible membrane, providing adequate removal of low- as well as "middle"-molecular-weight uremic toxins, may be one important explanation for improved survival.