Acta dermato-venereologica
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Acta Derm. Venereol. · Apr 2019
Multicenter Study Observational StudyMortality of Haemodialysis Patients With and Without Chronic Itch: A Follow-up Study of the German Epidemiological Hemodialysis Itch Study (GEHIS).
The GEHIS (German Epidemiological Hemodialysis Itch Study) is a representative cohort study started in 2013 with 860 haemodialysis (HD) patients in 25 German dialysis units. Chronic itch (CI) has been reported to be a poor prognostic marker for patients on HD; however, this has not been investigated in a representative patient cohort. In 2017, all HD patients were contacted again to investigate mortality in those with and without CI and to identify its determinants. ⋯ Mortality was significantly higher in those with secondary scratch lesions compared with those with non-affected skin. This was also true after controlling for age and sex in a multivariate model. This study demonstrates a high mortality in HD patients; however, mortality depends on itch intensity, not on the occurrence of CI itself.