In-Center Automated Peritoneal Dialysis: Clinical Features, Practice Patterns, and Patient Survival from a 6-Year Cohort Study in China.

Introduction: In-center automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) has been more frequently adopted in clinical practice for maintenance PD patients in China. For a better understanding of its clinical uptake, this retrospective study reviewed incident PD patients for a period of 6 years, investigating the practice pattern of in-center APD, factors associated with the use of in-center APD, and report on the patient survival compared to the nonusers of APD among hospitalized PD patients.

Methods: This was a cohort study of all incident PD patients who met the inclusion criteria from January 1, 2013 to September 30, 2018, and were followed until death, cessation of PD, loss to follow-up, or December 31, 2018. Clinical characteristics, patient outcomes, and detailed data on APD sessions were recorded. We used time-dependent Cox model to estimate the variables associated with the initiation of in-center APD, and marginal structural model through inverse probability weighting to adjust for time-varying APD use on the causal pathway to all-cause mortality.

Results: A total of 651 subjects over 17,501 patient-months were enrolled. Of these, 633 (97.2%) PD patients were hospitalized at least once during follow-up, and 369 (56.7%) received in-center APD at a certain point, and the timing of APD use during the first 3 months, first year, and first 2 years since PD inception were 14.8%, 45.4%, and 74.8%, respectively. A total of 12,553 in-center APD sessions were recorded, where 85.9% used 4 bags of 5L-exchanges per prescription. Time-dependent Cox model showed that diabetes (hazard ratio (HR), 1.39, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09-1.76), urine output (HR 0.80, 95% CI: 0.70-0.92), serum albumin (HR 0.84, 95% CI: 0.72-0.99), hemoglobin (HR 0.88, 95% CI: 0.77-0.99), and Ca × P (HR 1.19, 95% CI: 1.06-1.35) were significantly associated with in-center APD use. Among all hospitalized PD patients, the estimated HR corresponding to the marginal causal effect of in-center APD use on all-cause mortality was 0.13 (95% CI: 0.05-0.31, p < 0.001). Starting APD after the first PD year was associated with a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted-HR 0.56, 95% CI: 0.33-0.95).

Conclusions: In-center APD is used intensively during the first 2 years of PD and is associated with certain clinical features. Overall, in-center APD use was associated with a lower risk of all-cause death when compared with non-use.