A meta-analysis of the impact of initial hemodialysis access type on mortality in elderly incident hemodialysis population

Selecting the appropriate vascular access type for elderly patients before initiating hemodialysis presents a challenge, given their limited life expectancy and multiple comorbidities. This systematic review aims to evaluate whether initial arteriovenous access (AVa), including arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) and/or arteriovenous grafts (AVG), offers a benefit in reducing the risk of all-cause mortality compared to central venous catheters (CVC) for patients aged ≥ 65 years. We conducted searches in PubMed (from 1946 to March 20, 2023), Embase (from 1947 to 20 March 20, 2023), and the Cochrane Library to identify studies comparing the use of CVC with AVa as the initial vascular access in hemodialysis patients aged ≥ 65 years. The primary outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. We pooled the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the included studies using a random-effect model. The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale was employed to assess the risk of bias for each included study. Ten studies involving over 300,000 patients were included, all of which were retrospective cohort studies. Compared to AVa, the use of CVC as the initial dialysis access is associated with a higher incidence of all-cause mortality in patients aged ≥ 65 years (HR = 1.53, 95%CI = 1.41–1.67, I2 = 74.9). In this analysis, we observed an increased risk of death in elderly patients initiating dialysis with CVC compared to those using AVa. However, the retrospective cohort studies included in this analysis are susceptible to selection bias, indicating that further randomized controlled trials are necessary to confirm these findings. This systematic review and meta-analysis were not funded. The protocol of this systematic review has been registered in the PROSPERO registry (CRD42023435577; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero ).