32 Only 40% of ESKD deaths from withdrawal of dialysis entered a hospice for care. This study also demonstrated a cost saving associated with dialysis patients dying in a hospice after withdrawal from therapy.

ESKD patients use a hospice at a rate of 25% compared with that seen in cancer patients.55 A pilot study reviewed the charts of 35 dialysis patients that withdrew from therapy and were followed by a palliative care team.23 The mean survival time from dialysis withdrawal to death was 10 days. Symptoms were reduced in the last day with palliative care input. The study suggested improved education of multidisciplinary nephrology staff was required. A small Australian study assessed the abatement of medical treatment in ESKD that encompassed both withdrawal

and non-initiation click here of dialysis treatment.11 This study included four patients that withdrew from dialysis, seven that did not initiate dialysis and five spouses of these patients. The participants undertook semistructured interviews from which the investigators gleaned there would be benefits from a greater discussion of end-of-life issues with acceptance of this as part of standard practice. These findings are supported by a study into the experience of patients after cessation of dialysis that found early palliative care referral could assist the patient and multidisciplinary team to manage areas such as pain and create opportunities to discuss palliative

care options.23 Factors identified as indicators associated with dialysis withdrawal include poor functional status, functional dependency, gender, ethnicity, social Small molecule library purchase isolation and comorbidities.24,34,57 Recently, Kurella Tamura et al. explored dialysis withdrawal preferences and found these varied with race, with blacks less likely to withdraw from dialysis than whites.58 Also they found the elderly did not have an increased preference for dialysis withdrawal whereas younger patients were less likely to record their preferences and be open to end-of-life discussion.58 Symptom control is of paramount importance in ESKD patients on dialysis with pain being the most common.59 The use of the World Health Organization three-step analgesic ladder is effective in pain management in haemodialysis patients.59 A prospective cross-sectional pilot study compared Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin symptom burden and quality of life between patients with advanced ESKD with an eGFR <17 mL/min and a contemporary cohort with terminal malignancy.29 Those patients with ESKD had similar symptom burden and reduced quality of life as the terminal malignancy group. This highlights that the palliative care needs of patients with ESKD are just as important as those with terminal cancer. In a retrospective chart review of conservatively managed stage 4–5 CKD patients Murphy et al. assessed symptom burden using a short patient-completed assessment tool.