Detrimental effects of late referral in patients with chronic renal failure: a case-control study.

Despite broader indications and easier access to renal replacement therapy during the past decades in Western countries, an unduly high number of patients is still referred to maintenance hemodialysis (HD) at a very advanced stage of chronic renal failure (CRF). To assess whether such late referral induces detrimental effects, we retrospectively compared clinical status and laboratory features in 20 patients who had been referred to us less than one month prior to first HD (late referral, or LR group) and in 20 sex- and age-matched controls who had undergone regular follow-up for at least six months prior to HD (early referral, or ER group). Male to female ratio was 12/8 and age averaged 53.5 years in both groups. Mean (+/- 1 SD) systolic and diastolic blood pressure were higher in LR group than in controls (180 +/- 14/102 +/- 10 vs. 153 +/- 15/86 +/- 7 mm Hg, P < 0.001) and fluid overload with pulmonary edema was present in 13/20 versus 3/20 patients (P < 0.001). Plasma concentrations (mmol/liter) of creatinine (1.12 +/- 0.27 vs 0.97 +/- 0.11, P < 0.01) and phosphate (2.58 +/- 0.47 vs. 1.92 +/- 0.31, P < 0.001) were higher, whereas plasma levels of bicarbonate (14.2 +/- 3.9 vs 22.5 +/- 4.2, P < 0.001) and calcium (1.85 +/- 0.24 vs. 2.27 +/- 0.15, P < 0.001) were lower in LR than in ER group, as were hemoglobin (7.1 +/- 1.1 vs. 9.4 +/- 0.9 g/dl, P < 0.001) and serum albumin levels (35.3 +/- 4.8 vs. 39.7 +/- 3.4, P < 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)