Attitude of physicians in Saudi Arabia towards anemia treatment strategies in patients with chronic kidney disease.

We aimed in this study to evaluate the attitude of physicians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) towards strategies for treatment of anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). A questionnaire was sent to 153 physicians in 148 active dialysis units in the KSA including centers under the Ministry of Health (MOH) (73.6%), centers in the governmental non-MOH sector (12.2%) and centers in private hospitals (14.2%) that together care for a population of more than 7900 chronic dialysis patients. The study was performed between April and June 2006. A total of 137 physicians (89.5%) answered the questionnaire from 129 (87.1%) dialysis centers that catered to 7052 (89.2%) dialysis patients. There were 104 respondents (75.9%) who staged their CKD patients according to the level of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The estimated mean prevalence of each stage of CKD in the respondents' clinics was 15%, 19%, 29%, 22%, and 29% for the stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The estimated prevalence of anemia [hemoglobin (Hb) < 110 g/L] in the different stages of CKD were 11%, 17%, 38%, 59%, and 78% in stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. However, only 69 respondents (48%) answered these two questions. Sixty-seven respondents (50.4 %) believed that any patient with Hb < 110 g/L should receive r-HuEPO irrespective of the CKD stage, and 133 (99.3%) believed that correction of anemia in the CKD patients has documented impact on morbidity and mortality. In case of availability of a long acting r-HuEPO such as darbepoetin, 88 (66.2%) respondents would use it as their first choice other than the current short acting drug. Our survey suggests that the current practices concerning anemia management in CKD patients in the KSA may not be satisfactory. There are many centers that do not have data on the prevalence of CKD or anemia in their units. More studies are required to explore the quality of services rendered to the CKD patients and guidelines need to be outlined for the management of anemia in the CKD patients.