Cognitive deficits of patients with chronic kidney disease and effect of hemodialysis

Abstract

Background: Cognitive impairment (CI) has been described in chronic kidney disease (CKD) but the effect of haemodialysis (HD) on cognitive performance of CKD patients has not been researched in Sub-Saharan Africa. We studied the cognitive deficits of CKD patients and the short-term effect of HD on cognitive function in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients.

Cognitive function assessment in patients with end- stage renal disease in Nigeria: A single center experience

“…This finding is compatible with previous reports. [ 10 16 ] Our observation suggests that ESRD patients may be at higher risk of memory impairment than the general population. Similarly, there was demonstrable reduced performance in attention, concentration, visual processing speed, motor activation and fluency and psychomotor performance in ESRD patients.…”

“…[ 22 23 ] However, relative reduction in attention and concentration seen in the current study is in contrast with the finding of Egbi et al . [ 10 ] This difference may not be unconnected with methodological differences. Cognitive symptoms appear to represent one of the core features of depressive disorders with an impact on many functional outcomes;[ 24 25 ] thus, deliberate effort was made in the present study to exclude depression and severe functional disability in the study patients.…”

“…[ 6 7 ] Earlier studies have demonstrated that renal transplantation is associated with improvements in both neuropsychological tests such as the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), and neurophysiological markers of cognitive function measured using evoked potential latencies and electroencephalographic rhythms. [ 8 9 10 ] This cognitive impairment does not only have implication for the patient's ability to participate in adequate care of the ESRD[ 3 ] but also have major implications for informed consent in relation to dialysis initiation or maintenance, and ultimately, renal transplantation. [ 11 12 ]…”