Introduction: Emergency dialysis start (EDS) is frequent for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). To improve CKD management, new trajectory-based care policies are currently being introduced both in France and in the United States. This study describes the different types of predialysis care trajectories and factors associated with EDS.Methods: Adults patients who started dialysis in France in 2015 were included. Individual clinical and health care consumption data were retrieved from the French national end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) registry (Renal Epidemiology and Information Network [REIN]) and the French National Health Data system (SNDS), respectively. Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Component was used to identify groups of patients with the same health care consumption profile during the 2 years before dialysis start. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with EDS.Results: Among the 8856 patients included in the analysis, 2681 (30.3%) had EDS. The Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Component identified six types of predialysis care trajectories in which EDS rate ranged from 13.8% to 61.8%. After adjustment for the patients' characteristics, less frequent or lack of follow-up with a nephrologist was associated with higher risk of EDS (odds ratio [OR]: 1.32; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17-1.50 and OR: 1.83; 95% CI: 1.58-2.12), but not follow-up with a general practitioner.
Conclusions:The care trajectories during the 2 years before dialysis start were heterogeneous and patients with a lesser or lack of follow-up with a nephrologist were more likely to start dialysis in emergency, regardless of the frequency of follow-up by a general practitioner (GP). New CKD policies should include actions to strengthen CKD screening and referral to nephrologists.