The following is a summary of “Clinical features of COVID-19 among patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis in the context of high vaccination coverage during the omicron surge period: a retrospective cohort study,” published in the June 2023 issue of Nephrology by Beck et al.

For a study, researchers aimed to investigate the Omicron variant infection’s clinical features and outcomes in hemodialysis patients, identifying risk factors for severe COVID-19 and mortality within a highly vaccinated population. They included hemodialysis patients who received COVID-19 vaccination between March and September 2022, during the dominance of the Omicron variant and high vaccination rates. Study assessed the proportion of individuals experiencing severe COVID-19 or mortality using univariate logistic regression.

They found that of the total patients, 83 (78.3%) patients had asymptomatic/mild symptoms, 10 (9.4%) had moderate symptoms, and 13 (12.3%) had severe symptoms. Among them,6 (5.7%) patients required intensive care admission, 2 (1.9%) required mechanical ventilation, and 1 (0.9%) was kept on a high-flow nasal cannula 5 mortality cases were reported, with 1 directly attributed to COVID-19 and 4 related to pre-existing comorbidities. Advanced age, multiple comorbidities, cardiovascular diseases, elevated levels of aspartate transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase, blood urea nitrogen/creatinine ratio, brain natriuretic peptide, and red cell distribution, as well as decreased levels of hematocrit and albumin, were identified as risk factors for severe COVID-19 and mortality. A higher number of COVID-19 vaccinations exhibited a protective effect against both severe disease and mortality.

They concluded that hemodialysis patients in the Omicron surge, with high COVID-19 vaccination coverage, experienced reduced mortality. Risk factors for severe COVID-19 or mortality resembled those observed in the pre-Omicron period with low vaccination coverage.

Source: bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-023-03219-w