Risk factors for maintenance hemodialysis patients undergoing elective and emergency abdominal surgery

PURPOSE: To identify the risk factors for morbidity and mortality after elective and emergency abdominal surgeries in maintenance hemodialysis patients. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of 63 hemodialysis patients who underwent elective (group 1) and 24 who underwent emergency (group 2) abdominal surgeries, and classified them according to the presence/absence of postoperative complications. The clinical, laboratory and procedure-related data were obtained and compared between the groups. RESULTS: Group 2 had significantly higher morbidity and mortality rates than group 1 (58.3 and 16.6 % vs. 33.3 and 16.6 %, respectively, P < 0.05). The patients in group 1 with and without complications had significantly different blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels of 52.3 vs. 41.6 mg/dL (P = 0.03). There were significant differences in the patients in group 2 in terms of the age (72.7 vs. 55.0 years old; P < 0.002), the length of the operation (141 vs. 107 min; P < 0.02), the total protein levels (6.2 vs. 6.7 g/dL; P < 0.03), albumin levels (3.2 vs. 3.7 g/dL; P < 0.04) and need for intra- or postoperative blood transfusions (71.4 vs. 10.0 %; P < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The risk factors for a poor surgical outcome included high BUN levels in the elective surgery patients and hypoproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia, a longer operation and older age in patients undergoing emergency surgery. Perioperative blood transfusion was also associated with a high complication rate in the emergency surgery group.