Daily Versus Conventional Dialysis for COVID-19 Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Hemodialysis patients have high mortality and morbidity in COVID-19 due to different causes, thus the current study evaluates the difference between the effect of conventional and daily hemodialysis on mortality in End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients with COVID-19. Methods: This study was designed as a single-center, parallel, randomized and un-blinded clinical trial that chronic hemodialysis patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection enrolled. The study group was dialyzed daily for a week and the control group was on three sessions per week of dialysis. The primary outcome was estimation of mortality rate and secondary outcome was considered as ICU admission rate during hospitalization. Results: A total of 47 patients with the diagnosis of ESRD were included. The mean age of the included patients was 57.1±14.2 years in daily hemodialysis and 58.8±17.4 years in the conventional hemodialysis, and 36(76.6%) were male. From the 47 included patients, 18(38.3%) were admitted to the ICU, and 12(25.5%) were deceased during their hospital stay. The prevalence of the two main outcomes of the study, ICU admission and mortality, was not different between the two groups of the study. Conclusion: In this study, daily hemodialysis was beneficial in reducing mortality in COVID-19 infected patients, but this difference was not statistically significant. Studies with higher sample sizes may show this difference significantly.