Multidisciplinary Team Care Delays the Initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy in Diabetes: A Five-year Prospective, Single-center Study

OBJECTIVE: Although recent reports have highlighted the benefits of multidisciplinary team care (MTC) for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in slowing the progress of renal insufficiency, its long-term effects have not been evaluated for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). We compared the renal survival rate between MTC and conservative care (CC). METHODS: In this five-year, single-center, prospective, observational study, we examined 24 patients (mean age 65.5±12.1 years old, men/women 18/6) with DM-induced CKD stage ≥3 in an MTC clinic. The control group included 24 random patients with DM (mean age 61.0±12.8 years old, men/women 22/2) who received CC. MTC was provided by a nephrologist and medical staff, and CC was provided by a nephrologist. RESULTS: In total, 10 MTC and 20 CC patients experienced renal events [creatinine doubling, initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT), or death due to end-stage CKD]. During the five-year observation period, there were significantly fewer renal events in the MTC group than in the CC group according to the cumulative incidence method (p=0.006). Compared to CC, MTC significantly reduced the need for urgent initiation of hemodialysis (relative risk reduction 0.79, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.107-0.964). On a multivariate analysis, MTC (hazard ratio [HR], 0.434, 95% CI 0.200-0.939) and the slope of the estimated glomerular filtration rate during the first year (HR, 0.429 per 1 mL/min/m(2)/year, 95% CI 0.279-0.661) were negatively associated with renal events. CONCLUSION: MTC for DM-induced CKD is an effective strategy for delaying RRT. Long-term MTC can demonstrate reno-protective effects.