Abstract: 【Abstract】 Objective To reveal the epidemiological features of patients treated with maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) for the improvement of their therapeutic effect and prognosis. Methods Patients treated with MHD for more than three months during the period of June, 1991 to June, 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups according to their death time. Their epidemiological features were studied.  Results Epidemiological features in the recent 10 years were compared with those of 10 years ago. (a) MHD due to diabetic nephropathy rose significantly from 15.7% to 24.5% (x2=4.85, P＜0.05). MHD due to hypertensive nephropathy increased from 11.9% to 17.9% (x2=3.97, P＜0.05). On the other hand, MHD due to chronic glomerulonephritis decreased significantly from 44.0% to 38.4% (x2=5.67, P＜0.05), and MHD due to chronic interstitial nephritis decreased from 18.2% to 13.1% (x2=6.89, P＜0.05). (b) The age when MHD started rose significantly from 47.1±14.4 years to 55.6±17.1 years (F=14.97, P＜0.05). The proportion of MHD patients more than 60 years old increased from 40.8% to 49.1% (x2=7.21, P＜0.05), and the proportion of MHD patients less than 30 years old decreased from 19.3% to 15.6% (x2=3.87, P＜0.05). (c) Dialysis age also prolonged significantly from 39.7±13.4 months to 48.6±15.1 months (F=61.93, P＜0.05). MHD patients with dialysis age of more than 60 months rose from 20.1% to 38.9% (x2=18.71, P＜0.05), and MHD patients with dialysis age of less 12 months decreased from 20.5% to 13.2% (x2=3.63, P＜0.05). (d) Vascular access varied in recent 10 years. Autogenous arteriovenous fistula was used for most patients. Long-term central venous catheter and artificial vascular graft fistula were used increasingly. MHD patients using autogenous arteriovenous fistula as the first vascular access increased from 12.5% to 23.2% (x2=7.371, P＜0.05). (e) Death due to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events increased significantly from 53.5% to 78.2% (x2=29.576, P＜0.05), and infection caused death decreased from 37.1% to 16.6% (x2=23.70, P＜0.05). Conclusion In the recent 10 years, the primary diseases leading to MHD transformed from primary renal diseases to secondary renal diseases, the age when MHD started became older, average dialysis age prolonged, survival rate improved, vascular access approaches became varied, patients using arteriovenous fistula as the first vascular access increased, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events were the leading causes leading to death, and death due to infection decreased.

Key words: Hemodialysis, Epidemiology