Dialysis, Old Age, and Rehabilitation

doi:10.1001/jama.1994.03510250083041

Dialysis, Old Age, and Rehabilitation

Christopher R. Blagg, MD;
Sally S. Fitts, PhD

From the Northwest Kidney Centers (Drs Blagg and Fitts), the Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine (Dr Blagg), and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (Dr Fitts), University of Washington, Seattle. Dr Blagg is a consultant to Amgen Incorporated, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.

Excerpt

Health care reform and an aging population have rekindled concerns about treatment of the elderly by high-cost technology, so it is timely that two articles in this issue of The JOURNAL discuss elderly dialysis patients. Byrne et al¹ report survival with chronic dialysis in the elderly and the relatively poor life expectancy compared with age-matched peers in the general population, especially when end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is caused by diabetes. Ifudu et al² describe "dismal" rehabilitation in elderly inner-city hemodialysis patients; again, diabetics fared less well than nondiabetics. Despite the authors' disclaimers, both articles may well be used by "those who wish to institute age-based rationing of hemodialysis."