INTRODUCTION: Conservative kidney management (CKM) is a recognised treatment option for selected patients with chronic kidney disease stage 5 (CKD G5), but prognostic indicators for mortality and optimal timing for palliative care transition remain uncertain. METHOD: This is a single-centre, prospective cohort study of CKD G5 patients who opted for CKM, conducted between April 2021 and September 2024, with longitudinal monitoring of Edmonton Symptom Assessment System Revised: Renal; Palliative Perfor-mance Scale (PPS); Resources Utilisation Group.Activities of Daily Living (RUG-ADL) scale; Clinical Frailty Score; Karnofsky Performance Score; and clinical and laboratory data. Primary outcomes included identifying baseline mortality predictors and validating the PPS for survival estimation. Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify independent predictors of mortality. RESULTS: Among 109 patients (mean age 79.8±7.3 years, 64.2% female), 62 (56.9%) died during follow-up. Multivariate analysis identified baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (hazard ratio [HR] 1.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08.1.68, P<0.01) and serum albumin (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.08.1.43, P<0.01) as predictors of 1-year mortality. Median survival varied by eGFR: 3.0 months (95% CI 0.6.2) for eGFR .5 mL/min/1.73 m², 13.0 months (95% CI 9.1.16.9) for eGFR 6.10 mL/ min/1.73 m², and 20.0 months (95% CI 16.5.23.5) for eGFR >10 mL/min/1.73 m² (P<0.01). Subsequent PPS correlated strongly with survival, with median survival of 1.8 months for PPS <50, 5.3 months for PPS 50.60, and 7.9 months for PPS 70.80 (P=0.03). CONCLUSION Baseline eGFR and serum albumin predict 1-year mortality in CKM patients. PPS offers a practical tool for identifying patients requiring palliative care transition, supporting personalised care pathways and timely integration of palliative care.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Aged ; Prospective Studies ; Glomerular Filtration Rate ; Palliative Care/methods* ; Conservative Treatment/methods* ; Aged, 80 and over ; Prognosis ; Serum Albumin/analysis* ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Activities of Daily Living ; Singapore/epidemiology*

INTRODUCTION: In patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) suitable for peritoneal dialysis (PD), PD should ideally be planned and initiated electively (planned-start PD). If patients present late, some centres initiate PD immediately with an urgent-start PD strategy. However, as urgent-start PD is resource intensive, we evaluated another strategy where patients first undergo emergent haemodialysis (HD), followed by early PD catheter insertion, and switch to PD 48-72 hours after PD catheter insertion (early-start PD). Conventionally, late-presenting patients are often started on HD, followed by deferred PD catheter insertion before switching to PD≥14 days after catheter insertion (deferred start PD). METHODS: This is a retrospective study of new ESKD patients, comparing the planned-start, early-start and deferred-start PD strategies. Outcomes within 1 year of dialysis initiation were studied. RESULTS: Of 148 patients, 57 (38.5%) patients had planned-start, 23 (15.5%) early-start and 68 (45.9%) deferred-start PD. Baseline biochemical parameters were similar except for a lower serum urea with planned-start PD. No significant differences were seen in the primary outcomes of technique and patient survival across all 3 subgroups. Compared to planned-start PD, early-start PD had a shorter time to catheter migration (hazard ratio [HR] 14.13, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.65-121.04, P=0.016) while deferred-start PD has a shorter time to first peritonitis (HR 2.49, 95% CI 1.03-6.01, P=0.043) and first hospital admission (HR 2.03, 95% CI 1.35-3.07, P=0.001). CONCLUSION Planned-start PD is the best PD initiation strategy. However, if this is not possible, early-start PD is a viable alternative. Catheter migration may be more frequent with early-start PD but does not appear to impact technique survival.
Female ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/therapy* ; Male ; Peritoneal Dialysis/methods* ; Renal Dialysis ; Retrospective Studies ; Time Factors