Fracture Management in Chronic Kidney Disease: Challenges and Considerations for Orthopedic Surgeons

Orthopedic surgeons treating fractures need to consider comorbidities, including chronic kidney disease (CKD), which affects millions worldwide. CKD patients are at elevated risk of fractures due to osteoporosis, especially in advanced stages. In addition, fractures in CKD patients pose challenges due to impaired bone healing and increased post-fracture complications including surgical site infection and nonunion. In this article, we will discuss factors that must be considered when treating fractures in CKD patients. Perioperative management includes careful adjustment of hemodialysis schedules, selection of anesthetic methods, and addressing bleeding tendencies. Tourniquet usage for fractures in limbs with arteriovenous fistulae should be cautious. Pain medication should be administered carefully, with opioids like hydromorphone preferred over nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Medical management after fractures should address underlying factors and include physical rehabilitation to reduce the risk of subsequent fractures. A comprehensive approach to fracture management in CKD patients can improve outcomes.

Validation of operational definitions of mortality in a nationwide hemodialysis population using the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service databases of Korea

BACKGROUND

Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service's (HIRA) claims data have been used in studies of hemodialysis patients even though information about mortality is not provided in this database. Mortality analysis using HIRA data has been conducted using various operational definitions that have not been validated. This study aimed to validate operational definitions of mortality for maintenance hemodialysis patients that have been used when analyzing the Korean HIRA database.

METHODS

This study utilized claims data of the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) between January 2008 and December 2019. We estimated mortality based on operational definitions applied in previous studies using the HIRA database and compared it with NHIS mortality information to validate accuracy.

RESULTS

A total of 128,876 patients who started maintenance hemodialysis between January 2009 and December 2019 were analyzed. The accuracy of estimated mortality was the highest at 96% in the group where mortality was defined as an absence of claims data for 150 days. If the period of no claims data was set to 90 days or less, there was a risk of overestimating the mortality for the entire study period. When it was set to 180 days or more, there was a risk of underestimating the mortality, as the follow-up time was close to the end of the study period.

CONCLUSION

When mortality analysis of maintenance hemodialysis patients is performed using HIRA data, it is most accurate to set the operational definition period as the absence of claims data for 150 days.

Evaluating the use of methods to mitigate bias from non-transient medications in the case-crossover design: A systematic review

PURPOSE

The case-crossover design is a self-controlled study design used to compare exposure immediately preceding an event occurrence with exposure in earlier control periods. The design is most suitable for transient exposures in order to avoid biases that can be problematic when using the case-crossover design for non-transient (i.e., chronic) exposures. Our goal was to conduct a systematic review of case-crossover studies and its variants (case-time-control and case-case-time-control) in order to compare design and analysis choices by medication type.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic search to identify recent case-crossover, case-time-control, and case-case-time-control studies focused on medication exposures. Articles indexed in MEDLINE and EMBASE using these study designs that were published between January 2015 and December 2021 in the English language were identified. Reviews, methodological studies, commentaries, articles without medications as the exposure of interest, and articles with no available full text were excluded. Study characteristics including study design, outcome, risk window, control window, reporting of discordant pairs, and inclusion of sensitivity analyses were summarized overall and by medication type. We further evaluated the implementation of recommended methods to account for biases introduced by non-transient exposures among articles that used the case-crossover design on a non-transient exposure.

RESULTS

Of the 2036 articles initially identified, 114 articles were included. The case-crossover was the most common study design (88%), followed by the case-time-control (17%), and case-case-time-control (3%). Fifty-three percent of the articles included only transient medications, 35% included only non-transient medications, and 12% included both. Across years, the proportion of case-crossover articles evaluating a non-transient medication ranged from 30% in 2018 to 69% in 2017. We found that 41% of the articles that evaluated a non-transient medication did not apply any of the recommended methods to account for biases and more than half of which were conducted by authors with no previous publication history of case-crossover studies.

CONCLUSION

Using the case-crossover design to evaluate a non-transient medication remains common in pharmacoepidemiology. Researchers should apply appropriate design and analysis choices when opting to use a case-crossover design with non-transient medication exposures.

Hyperuricemia and diabetes mellitus when occurred together have higher risks than alone on all-cause mortality and end-stage renal disease in patients with chronic kidney disease

Introduction

Hyperuricemia and diabetes mellitus (DM) are associated with increased mortality risk in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Here we aimed to evaluate the independent and joint risks of these two conditions on mortality and end stage kidney disease (ESKD) in CKD-patients.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study enrolled 4380 outpatients (with CKD stage 3–5) with mortality and ESKD linkage during a 7-year period (from 2007 to 2013). All-causes mortality and ESKD risks were analyzed by multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models (adjusted for age, sex, smoke, previous coronary arterial disease, blood pressure, and medications for hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia and renin–angiotensin system inhibitors).

Results

Overall, 40.5% of participants had DM and 66.4% had hyperuricemia. In total, 356 deaths and 932 ESKD events occurred during the 7 years follow-up. With the multivariate analysis, increased risks for all-cause mortality were: hyperuricemia alone, HR = 1.48 (1–2.19); DM alone, and HR = 1.52 (1.02–2.46); DM and hyperuricemia together, HR = 2.12 (1.41–3.19). Similar risks for ESKD were: hyperuricemia alone, HR = 1.34 (1.03–1.73); DM alone, HR = 1.59 (1.15–2.2); DM and hyperuricemia together, HR = 2.46 (1.87–3.22).

Conclusions

DM and hyperuricemia are strongly associated with higher all-cause mortality and ESKD risk in patients with CKD stage 3–5. Hyperuricemia is similar to DM in terms of risk for all-cause mortality and ESKD. DM and hyperuricemia when occurred together further increase both risks of all-cause mortality and ESKD.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12882-022-02755-1.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in end-stage kidney disease: dangerous or underutilized?

Introduction: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are a popular class of analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications, but their use is often avoided in end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients due to their reputation for nephrotoxic side effects. This removes a useful agent from the analgesic arsenal, even as ESKD patients suffer from proportionally more severe chronic pain than the general population as well as from a large reliance on opioid medications. Areas Covered: This paper reviews the current literature to comprehensively define the pharmacologic mechanisms and adverse effects of NSAIDs and reassesses the viability of their use in ESKD patients. Expert opinion: The evidence directly examining the impact of NSAIDs on long-term outcomes in ESKD is limited. Further study quantifying the risk of NSAID use - especially in dialysis-dependent patients - is warranted. Given the difficulty in achieving adequate pain control in ESKD patients, limited use of NSAIDs in these patients may yet be justified.

Association between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with end-stage renal disease: a population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) despite clinical guideline recommendations that the use of NSAIDs be avoided in this population. However, the relationship between NSAID use and adverse cardiovascular events remains unclear. Thus, this study investigated the association between NSAID use and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with ESRD.

METHODS

We used the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to conduct this population-based cohort study of patients with newly diagnosed ESRD requiring long-term dialysis between 1998 and 2012. Clinical outcomes were evaluated until the end of 2013. Time-dependent Cox regression models were used to investigate the association between NSAID use and MACEs in patients with ESRD.

RESULTS

Among 2349 patients with ESRD receiving dialysis, 1923 (82%) patients used NSAIDs during the follow-up period. Multivariable analysis revealed that compared with nonusers, NSAID users exhibited an increased risk of MACEs with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.70 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.22-2.36). Further analysis demonstrated a significant dose-response relationship between the cumulative use of NSAIDs and MACEs. Adjusted HRs for MACEs were 1.63 (95% CI 1.16-2.30), 1.86 (95% CI 1.22-2.83), and 1.99 (95% CI 1.24-3.20) for cumulative NSAID use of 1-30 defined daily doses (DDDs), 31-90 DDDs, and > 90 DDDs, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study suggest that NSAID use may increase the risk of MACEs in patients with ESRD. Clinicians and patients with ESRD should be aware of the potential cardiovascular risks associated with NSAIDs.