Treatment preferences to serious illness in patients receiving peritoneal dialysis

Abstract Background and Aims People with end-stage kidney disease receiving maintenance dialysis are more likely to receive intensive pattern of end-of-life care than those with other severe illness. It's important to understand the preferences to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and other end-of-life care. However, no prior studies have investigated patients receiving peritoneal dialysis. This study aimed to explore the preference to CPR and patterns of end-of-life care in patient receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD), which had not been specifically investigated in the literature. Method This cross-sectional study of patients receiving PD was conducted in the National Taiwan University Hospital between Dec. 2021, and Mar. 2022. Patients were enrolled if they were 20 years or older, sufficiently fluent to complete surveys and cognitively able to provide written informed consent and had received maintenance peritoneal dialysis for at least 3 months. Enrollee were asked to the Chinese version of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment questionnaire. Results Among 400 eligible patients, 364 (91%) responded to the questionnaire. The average age was 55.5 years; 50.3% were men. Among the 364 responders, 73.6% selected do not attempt resuscitation (DNR) and 26.4% preferred CPR. Multivariate logistic analysis revealed that age (OR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.98), male (OR = 2.44, 95% CI 1.45-4.1) and residual kidney Kt/V (OR = 2.45 95% CI 1.24-4.82) were associated with CPR. If they are facing on serious illness, 47.5% of participants prefer to “Focus on comfort”, 28.6% choose “try treatments, but do not suffer” and 23.9% request “live as long as possible”. Furthermore, 51.4% of participants selected “No artificial nutrient support” in the end of life and 87.1% select “comfort care” as their first priority. Paradoxically, only 13.5% of the patients who preferred CPR took “staying alive” as their first priority, while 71.9% focused on “comfort care”. Conclusion Around 75% of PD patients selected DNR when cardiopulmonary arrest. Age, gender, residual Kt/V were important factors associated with CPR preference. Most patients preferred supportive pattern of end-of-life care. Integrating patients' treatment preference to serious illness and values and goals of end-of-life care in shared decision making is important for patients receiving dialysis.