Background. Hemodialysis is life-saving and life-altering, affecting patients’ quality of life. The management of dialysis patients often focuses on renal replacement therapy to improve clinical outcomes and remove excess fluid; however, the patient’s quality of life is often not factored in. Objective. This study aimed to explore the factors affecting the quality of life of patients on dialysis in Palestine using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL-SFTM) questionnaire. Methods. A multicenter cross-sectional observational study was conducted at multiple dialysis centers in Palestine, including 271 participants receiving renal replacement therapy. Demographics, socioeconomic, and disease status data were collected. The Arabic version of KDQOL-SFTM was used to assess dialysis patient quality of life. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS to find correlations among patient factors and the questionnaire’s three main domains, the kidney disease component summaries (KDCS), mental component summaries (MCS), and physical component summaries (PCS). Results. Mean KDCS, MCS, and PCS scores were 59.86, 47.10, and 41.15, respectively. KDC scores were lower among participants aged 40 years or older, with lower incomes, and with diabetes. PCS and MCS scores were lower among patients aged >40, less educated, and lower-income participants. There was a positive correlation between MCS and KDCS (r = 0.634, P -value <0.001), PCS and KDCS (r = 0.569, P -value <0.001), as well as MCS and PCS (r = 0.680, P -value <0.001). Conclusion. In this study, the KDQOL-SFTM questionnaire revealed lower PCS scores among hemodialysis patients in Palestine. Furthermore, the three domains of the questionnaire were adversely affected by patient income and education status. In addition, physical role, work status, and emotional role showed the lowest scores among the three main domains. Therefore, continuous assessment of patients’ quality of life during their journey of hemodialysis using the KDQOL-SFTM along with the clinical assessment will allow the healthcare professionals to provide interventions to optimize their care.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P.A.) is a gram-negative, aerobic rod bacterium that mainly grows in soil and watery environments, infrequently being a part of microflora in healthy individuals. Since P.A. favors the growth in moistened areas, it can colonize in any simple aqueous solution, which in turn raises the risk of contamination and infection in hospital settings. The emergence of drug resistant bacterial species has become increasingly prevalent in many health care facilities worldwide. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of these pathogens that had developed resistance to many of the previously effective antibiotics. Hence, it is highly valued to know the resistance pattern of P.A. in every health care facility. That in turn would facilitate more accurate and effective empirical regimens selection when dealing with life threatening infections. The purpose of this study is to review antimicrobial resistance patterns of P. aeruginosa from different clinical specimens based on several studies made in different countries and to discuss the distribution of P. aeruginosa infection and antibiotic resistance according to the gender of the patients and the type of specimen. ScienceDirect, PubMed and Google scholar were used during search to find published articles in English language. 15 articles from different countries about antimicrobial resistance patterns of P. aeruginosa were used in this article. Studies done between 2010 and 2020 were chosen. In this study Aminoglycosides (Amikacin), Piperacillin/Tazobactam and Polymyxins (Polymyxin-B and Colistin) were found to be the most effective drugs against P. aeruginosa. On the other hand, the highest resistance rate was against Cefuroxime, Ceftriaxone, Ampicillin, Ticarcillin/Clavulanic Acid, Amoxicillin/Clavulanic Acid, Co-Trimoxazole, Ceftazidime, Cefepime, Aztreonam. Carbapenems (Meropenem and Imipenem) showed inconsistent results as they were found to be the most effective against P. aeruginosa in some places, while in others; they had the highest resistance rate.
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