How should we analyze and present mortality in our patients?: a multicentre GCDP experience

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Introduction There are different strategies to analyze mortality in peritoneal dialysis (PD) with different definitions for case, event, time at risk, and statistical tests. A common method for the different registries would enable proper comparison to better understand the actual differences in mortality of our patients. Methods We review and describe the analysis strategies of regional, national and international registries. We include actuarial survival, Kaplan–Meier (KM) and competitive risk (CR) analyses. We apply different approaches to the same database (GCDP), which show apparent differences with each method. Results A total of 1890 incident patients in PD from 2003 to 2013 were included (55 years; men 64.2%), with initial RRF of 7 ml/min; 25% had diabetes and a Charlson index of 3 [2–4]; 261 patients died, 380 changed to haemodialysis (HD) and 682 received a transplant. Annual mortality rates varied up to 20% in relative numbers (6.4 vs. 5.2%) depending on the system applied. The estimated probability of mortality measured by CR progressively differs from the KM over the years: 3.6 vs. 4.0% the first year, then 9.0 vs. 11.9%, 15.6 vs. 28.3%, and 18.5 vs. 43.3% the following years. Conclusions Although each method may be correct in themselves and express different approaches, the final impression left on the reader is a number that under/overestimates mortality. The CR model expresses better the reality of PD, where the number of patients losing follow-up (transplant, transfer to HD) it is 4 times more than deceased patients and only a quarter remain on PD at the end of follow up.

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