New research was presented at Kidney Week 2020 Reimagined, the virtual annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology.
Prior observational research suggests that oral nutritional supplementation during the dialysis session in patients on hemodialysis may reduce mortality. However, it remains unclear whether patients with normal serum albumin experience such benefits. For a study, researchers compared the effects of an intensive oral nutritional supplement protocol, in which prevalent hemodialysis patients received supplements at every dialysis session regardless of serum albumin, with those of standard care, in which supplements were administered to patients with albumin below 3.5 g/dL. Among 10,043 patients randomized to either arm, 3,628 deaths occurred during a median follow-up of 21 months, among which 35.8% occurred in the intensive group and 36.5% occurred in the standard group. In both unadjusted Cox models and models adjusted for age, sex, and race, outcomes were similar between the study groups.
