[Conservative treatment, hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis for elderly patients: The choice of treatment does not influence the survival].

Hemodialysis is the predominant replacement therapy in the 70 year-old French population (18% in peritoneal dialysis, 72% in hemodialysis from the REIN registry). Managing older patients reaching the end stage renal disease poses many ethical questions, since outcomes balanced regarding survival and quality of life. The aim of this study was to compare the survival of patients aged over 70 years according to the ESRD treatment choice: conservative treatment without dialysis (CT), hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD). We included all patients over 70 years reaching stade IV CKD integrated in a predialysis information program between 01/01/2005 and 31/12/2010. We compared their survival from the start of their program, in function of their treatment choice: HD, PD or CT. On this period, 148 patients were included, we excluded from analysis 17 patients who had a contraindication to PD, 26 patients who did not make a choice because their kidney function was stabilized, 4 patients lost to follow-up and 12 patients who died before the treatment choice. The average age was 79±6 years, 40% of patients were women, and the mean eGFR was 16±9 mL/min/1.73 m(2) at the entry in the program. Among the 89 patients, 21 choose CT (24%), 68 accepted dialysis (76%), including 48 HD (71%) and 20 PD (29%). No significant eGFR difference at the inclusion time between the groups. The time initiation of dialysis was significantly shorter in the PD group (146 days vs 442 in the HD group; P=0.004). Survival between the groups of patients who accepted or refused dialysis was not statistically different (749 days or 2 years in the HD + PD group vs 562 days, or 1 year and 6 months in the CT group; P=0.95) and between the HD group (760 days or 2 years and 2 months) and the PD group (343 days or 11 months; P=0.32). As measured from the time they entered in the predialysis program, the survival of older patients over 70 years does not seem to depend on their choice of treatment modality. Whether they accepted or refused dialysis, whatever their choice concerning hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, their survival was close to one year.