Effect of BMI on outcome in peritoneal dialysis patients: a single Saudi center review

Objective: To evaluate the effect of obesity on peritoneal dialysis (PD) including technique survival, incidence of complications and mortality Design: Retrospective cohort analysis Settings: Nephrology unit at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between January 1st, 2005 and December 31st, 2014 Subjects: Ninety-eight patients treated in the PD unit. Out of these, 36 had healthy weight and 28 were overweight, while 34 patients were obese. Intervention: As a retrospective study, no intervention in patient medication or dialysis was performed. Main outcome measure: The main outcome measure was patient mortality or cessation of PD (transplant or transfer to hemodialysis (HD)). Other measures included infection and complications. Results: The mean age was 52.14 years (range: 16-77 years) for obese patients compared with 49.83 years (range: 16-84 years) in overweight and 47.53 years (range: 19-86 years) in normal weight patients. Peritonitis rate was 0.38 per patient years in normal weight, 0.22 in overweight and 0.35 in obese patients. The mortality rate was 0.09 per patient years in normal, 0.07 in overweight and 0.06 in obese patients. Six (15%) patients in the normal weight group shifted to HD, compared to 7 (25%) overweight and 14 (32.5%) obese patients (P=.045). Six (15%) patients in normal weight group underwent renal transplant, compared to 2 (7.1%) overweight and 4 (9.3%) obese patients (P=.020). Conclusion: Our results revealed no significant differences in terms of infections, complications and patient mortality. However, obese patients had higher transfer to HD and lower renal transplant.