SARS-CoV-2 infection in chronic kidney disease patients with pre-existing dialysis: description across different pandemic intervals and effect on disease course (mortality)

PURPOSE: Patients suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD) are in general at high risk for severe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) but dialysis-dependency (CKD5D) is poorly understood. We aimed to describe CKD5D patients in the different intervals of the pandemic and to evaluate pre-existing dialysis dependency as a potential risk factor for mortality. METHODS: In this multicentre cohort study, data from German study sites of the Lean European Open Survey on SARS-CoV-2-infected patients (LEOSS) were used. We multiply imputed missing data, performed subsequent analyses in each of the imputed data sets and pooled the results. Cases (CKD5D) and controls (CKD not requiring dialysis) were matched 1:1 by propensity-scoring. Effects on fatal outcome were calculated by multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: The cohort consisted of 207 patients suffering from CKD5D and 964 potential controls. Multivariable regression of the whole cohort identified age (> 85 years adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 7.34, 95% CI 2.45–21.99), chronic heart failure (aOR 1.67, 95% CI 1.25–2.23), coronary artery disease (aOR 1.41, 95% CI 1.05–1.89) and active oncological disease (aOR 1.73, 95% CI 1.07–2.80) as risk factors for fatal outcome. Dialysis-dependency was not associated with a fatal outcome—neither in this analysis (aOR 1.08, 95% CI 0.75–1.54) nor in the conditional multivariable regression after matching (aOR 1.34, 95% CI 0.70–2.59). CONCLUSIONS: In the present multicentre German cohort, dialysis dependency is not linked to fatal outcome in SARS-CoV-2-infected CKD patients. However, the mortality rate of 26% demonstrates that CKD patients are an extreme vulnerable population, irrespective of pre-existing dialysis-dependency. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s15010-022-01826-7.