Revisiting the biomedicalization of aging: clinical trends and ethical challenges

Developments in the realms of medical innovation and geriatric clinical intervention impact our understanding of the nature of late life, the possibilities for health in advanced age, medical decision making, and family responsibility in ways that could not have been predicted 15 years ago. This essay begins to map new forms of biomedicalization in the U.S. and to underscore their emergence in a new ethical field. We suggest that a new kind of ethical knowledge is emerging through "routine" clinical care, and we offer examples from the following interventions: cardiac procedures, kidney dialysis, and kidney transplant. This new ethical knowledge is characterized by the difficulty of saying "no" to life-extending interventions, regardless of age. We explore the intensification of the biomedicalization of old age through a discussion of three features of the new ethical field: (a) the ways in which routine medical care overshadows choice; (b) the transformation of the technological imperative to a moral imperative; and (c) the coupling of hope with the normalization and routinization of life-extending interventions. We argue that societal expectations about longevity and standard medical care come together today in a shifting ethics of normalcy, with unexplored socio-cultural ramifications.     

Patient age and decisions to withhold life-sustaining treatments from seriously ill, hospitalized adults. SUPPORT Investigators. Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatment

BACKGROUND: Patient age may influence decisions to withhold life-sustaining treatments, independent of patients' preferences for or ability to benefit from such treatments. Controversy exists about the appropriateness of using age as a criterion for making treatment decisions. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of age on decisions to withhold life-sustaining therapies. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Five medical centers participating in the Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatments (SUPPORT). PATIENTS: 9105 hospitalized adults who had one of nine illnesses associated with an average 6-month mortality rate of 50%. MEASUREMENTS: Outcomes were the presence and timing of decisions to withhold ventilator support, surgery, and dialysis. Adjustment was made for sociodemographic characteristics, prognoses, baseline function, patients' preferences for life-extending care, and physicians' understanding of patients' preferences for life-extending care. RESULTS: The median patient age was 63 years; 44% of patients were women, and 53% survived to 180 days. In adjusted analyses, older age was associated with higher rates of withholding each of the three life-sustaining treatments studied. For ventilator support, the rate of decisions to withhold therapy increased 15% with each decade of age (hazard ratio, 1.15 [95% CI, 1.12 to 1.19]); for surgery, the increase per decade was 19% (hazard ratio, 1.19 [CI, 1.12 to 1.27]); and for dialysis, the increase per decade was 12% (hazard ratio, 1.12 [CI, 1.06 to 1.19]). Physicians underestimated older patients' preferences for life-extending care; adjustment for this underestimation resulted in an attenuation of the association between age and decisions to withhold treatments. CONCLUSION: Even after adjustment for differences in patients' prognoses and preferences, older age was associated with higher rates of decisions to withhold ventilator support, surgery, and dialysis.     

Patient and Health Care Professional Decision-Making to Commence and Withdraw from Renal Dialysis: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Research

Background and objective

To ensure that decisions to start and stop dialysis in ESRD are shared, the factors that affect patients and health care professionals in making such decisions must be understood. This systematic review sought to explore how and why different factors mediate the choices about dialysis treatment.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and PsychINFO were searched for qualitative studies of factors that affect patients’ or health care professionals’ decisions to commence or withdraw from dialysis. A thematic synthesis was conducted.

Results

Of 494 articles screened, 12 studies (conducted from 1985 to 2014) were included. These involved 206 patients (most receiving hemodialysis) and 64 health care professionals (age ranges: patients, 26–93 years; professionals, 26–61 years). For commencing dialysis, patients based their choice on "gut instinct," as well as deliberating over the effect of treatment on quality of life and survival. How individuals coped with decision-making was influential: Some tried to take control of the problem of progressive renal failure, whereas others focused on controlling their emotions. Health care professionals weighed biomedical factors and were led by an instinct to prolong life. Both patients and health care professionals described feeling powerless. With regard to dialysis withdrawal, only after prolonged periods on dialysis were the realities of life on dialysis fully appreciated and past choices questioned. By this stage, however, patients were physically dependent on treatment. As was seen with commencing dialysis, individuals coped with treatment withdrawal in a problem- or emotion-controlling way. Families struggled to differentiate between choosing versus allowing death. Health care teams avoided and queried discussions regarding dialysis withdrawal. Patients, however, missed the dialogue they experienced during predialysis education.

Conclusions

Decision-making in ESRD is complex and dynamic and evolves over time and toward death. The factors at work are multifaceted and operate differently for patients and health professionals. More training and research on open communication and shared decision-making are needed.     

The Ethics of Offering Dialysis for AKI to the Older Patient: Time to Re-Evaluate?

Older patients are more susceptible to AKI. In the elderly, AKI has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and it is a significant risk factor for CKD and dialysis-dependent ESRD. There are now accumulating data that the start of dialysis for some older patients is associated with poor outcomes, such as high treatment intensity, suffering, and limited life prolongation, which occur at the expense of dignity and quality of life. The biomedicalization of aging is a relatively recent field of ethical inquiry with two directly relevant features to decisions about starting dialysis for older patients with AKI: (1) the routinization of geriatric clinical interventions, such as dialysis, which results in the overshadowing of patient choice, and (2) the transformation of the technological imperative into the moral imperative. A major consequence of the biomedicalization of aging is that societal expectations about standard medical care have resulted in the relatively unquestioned provision of dialysis for AKI to older patients. This paper calls for nephrologists to re-examine the data and their attitudes to offering dialysis to older patients with AKI, especially those patients with underlying CKD and significant comorbidities. Shared decision-making and the reinforcement of the right of the patient to make a choice need to slow down the otherwise ineluctable routinization of starting old and very sick patients on dialysis. In the process of shared decision-making, nephrologists should not automatically recommend dialysis for older patients; in those patients who can be predicted to do poorly, recommending against dialysis upholds the Hippocratic maxim to be of benefit and do no harm. This paper challenges the automatic transformation of the technological imperative into the moral imperative for older patients with AKI and points to the need for a re-evaluation of dialysis ethics in this population.     

Users' and providers' perspectives on technological procedures for 'normal' childbirth in a public maternity hospital in Salvador, Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To reveal the effect of cultural practices on the way in which normal birth is conducted in a public hospital in Brazil. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This article about a public maternity hospital in Salvador, Brazil, compares the points of view of providers and users on four technological normal childbirth procedures: trichotomy, episiotomy, oxytocin infusion, and epidural analgesia. Fieldwork carried out from 2002 to 2003 combined qualitative and quantitative methods. RESULTS: Institutional practices make childbirth unnecessarily difficult for women. Nonetheless, most women accept the conditions because the medical procedures make sense according to their cultural understandings. Service providers support the use of such procedures, although doctors are aware that they contradict recommendations found in scientific medical literature. This article argues that from the perspective of both providers and users, the technological procedures are infused with a culturally specific set of meanings and values. CONCLUSIONS: Policymakers must address the cultural understandings of both users and health care professionals in order to improve maternal healthcare in public hospitals in Brazil.     

Dialysis: prolonging life or prolonging dying? Ethical, legal and professional considerations for end of life decision making

There are over 7,000 people on dialysis in Australia and this is predicted to increase due to the ageing population and the high incidence of diabetes mellitus. Discontinuation of dialysis is the second most frequent cause of death in dialysis patients in Australia. Risk factors for the discontinuation of dialysis include: co-morbidities (especially diabetes mellitus) and being older. Because the decision to discontinue dialysis is a major life choice, collaborative decision making should be encouraged, and the patient needs assurances of the continuation of care and kindness, a palliative care plan, and the alleviation of suffering. Patients decide to discontinue dialysis because of an unacceptable quality of life, depression and a chronic failure to thrive. Health professionals need to support end of life decision making using an ethical decision framework. A review of current literature was undertaken and revealed a paucity of information in regard to palliation in those with end stage renal disease who had discontinued dialysis. The fear of dying, pain, suffering, and abandonment that a patient and/or their family may perceive as being associated with death may create barriers to decisions to discontinue with dialysis treatments. Therefore health care personnel should provide information with honesty to allow patients to predict their quality of life and death. Support for the patient and family during the dying period should be multi-disciplinary, with clear and timely communication between all members of the team.     

DIALYSIS: PROLONGING LIFE OR PROLONGING DYING? ETHICAL,LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR END OF LIFE DECISION MAKING

There are over 7,000 people on dialysis in Australia and this is predicted to increase due to the ageing population and the high incidence of diabetes mellitus. Discontinuation of dialysis is the second most frequent cause of death in dialysis patients in Australia. Risk factors for the discontinuation of dialysis include: co‐morbidities (especially diabetes mellitus) and being older. Because the decision to discontinue dialysis is a major life choice, collaborative decision making should be encouraged, and the patient needs assurances of the continuation of care and kindness, a palliative care plan, and the alleviation of suffering. Patients decide to discontinue dialysis because of an unacceptable quality of life, depression and a chronic failure to thrive. Health professionals need to support end of life decision making using an ethical decision framework. A review of current literature was undertaken and revealed a paucity of information in regard to palliation in those with end stage renal disease who had discontinued dialysis. The fear of dying, pain, suffering, and abandonment that a patient and/or their family may perceive as being associated with death may create barriers to decisions to discontinue with dialysis treatments. Therefore health care personnel should provide information with honesty to allow patients to predict their quality of life and death. Support for the patient and family during the dying period should be multi‐disciplinary, with clear and timely communication between all members of the team.     

Peritoneal dialysis and its modification in the treatment of chronic renal failure

Three methods can be used to treat chronic renal failure - haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and renal transplantation (from a living donor or transplantation of a cadaver kidney). In 2009, 5,763 patients were treated with haemodialysis in the Czech Republic, while peritoneal dialysis was used in just 8% (458) of patients. This low number of peritoneal dialyses may be due to the still high number of chronic renal failure patients who come to dialysis centres "offthe street". Following acute initiation of haemodialysis, these patients are usually retained on haemodialysis. Poor awareness of peritoneal dialysis among patients as well as health care professionals is another reason for the low number of peritoneal dialysis patients. Peritoneal dialysis is suitable for home treatment. Peritoneum serves as the dialysis membrane, peritoneal cavity is filled with dialysis solution and the metabolism waste products and water are excreted into this solution. A base to correct metabolic acidosis then passes from dialysis solution into the body. Permanent catheter is inserted into the abdominal cavity to enable infusion of the dialysis solution. The dialysis is continual and this ensures stability of the inner environment and thus most closely resembles own kidney function. The advantages of peritoneal dialysis include longer preservation of residual renal function, inner environment stability and no need for venous access. Peritoneal dialysis is associated with a lower risk of infections. Peritoneal dialysis is contraindicated in patients after an extensive intraabdominal surgery and in patients with a stoma. Peritoneal damage is a serious complication of peritoneal dialysis; the risk increases with the treatment duration and thus peritoneal dialysis is not a long-term treatment choice. With the traditional CAPD (continual ambulatory peritoneal dialysis), the patient performs an exchange ofdialysis solution him/herself4 to 5 times a day. With APD (automated peritoneal dialysis) a machine performs dialysis solution exchanges, dialysis is performed at night and the patient may engage in other activities during a day. From the perspective of log-term survival of patients with chronic renal failure, peritoneal dialysis appears to be the method of choice. The patient is first treated with peritoneal dialysis and subsequently receives a transplant. Should the renal allograft be rejected, the patient returns to the dialysis programme, either peritoneal or haemodialysis. Patients should be provided with true and objective information about their disease and be informed about all treatment options for chronic renal failure. The choice of method has to be tailored to the overall health status of the patient as well as his/her lifestyle.     

Knowledge and perceptions in advance care planning

OBJECTIVE: This study explores detailed knowledge of medical terminology and connotations of equivocal phrases frequently used in advance care planning. METHOD: One hundred seventy community-dwelling older adults answered yes-or-no questions about their knowledge of medical conditions and treatments and completed a written questionnaire about their connotations of ambiguous phrases such as "live like a vegetable." RESULTS: On average, participants answered 78% of all factual questions correctly; however, accuracy ranged from 59% to 94% across individuals. Participants knew the most about basic treatment purposes and procedures and the least about treatment outcomes. Perceptions of equivocal phrases were idiosyncratic, even for conventional terms such as improvement. DISCUSSION: Older adults approach advance care planning with critical misconceptions and individualistic perceptions, about which family and health care professionals may be unaware. Efforts to improve advance care planning should include instruction concerning medical information and encouragement to use explicit language to express treatment preferences.     

Renal replacement therapy in the over-80s

BACKGROUND: The incidence of chronic renal failure rises dramatically with age, which is no longer seen as a contraindication to treatment. AIM: To characterise Scottish dialysis patients aged 80 years and over at the time of their first treatment and to compare their outcomes with those of patients with other serious illnesses. DESIGN AND METHODS: Retrospective survey of all older patients starting dialysis in Dumfries and Galloway between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 2003, and of all older chronic renal failure patients starting dialysis in Scotland between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 2001. Comparison with 4,565 Scottish Lung Cancer and 14,398 myocardial infarction (MI) patients of similar age. RESULTS: 213/3,944 Scottish dialysis patients were aged 80 years or over at the time of their first treatment, representing 5.4% of all new patients and 9.2% of all new starts in 2001. Ninety per cent of older patients received haemodialysis as their first mode of renal replacement therapy. The most common diagnosis was chronic renal failure of unknown cause in 41% of cases. Quality of life, measured in a subset of Dumfries patients, suggested similar social functioning and mental health, but poorer physical health than their younger dialysis counterparts. Early mortality was high in all three diagnostic groups. Median survival from 90 days after the start of treatment, registration or hospital admission was 459 days (95% CI, 375, 543) for the older Scottish CRF patients, compared to 141 days (128, 154) for lung cancer and 1242 days (1192, 1292) for MI patients. CONCLUSIONS: Dialysis can be an effective treatment modality for at least a proportion of octogenarians with end-stage renal failure.     

Targeting screening mammography according to life expectancy among women undergoing dialysis

BACKGROUND: Screening guidelines recommend that mammography be targeted to women likely to live longer than 5 years. Because women undergoing dialysis have a reduced but variable life expectancy, their appropriate use of screening is controversial. Therefore, we conducted this study to describe national mammography rates among women undergoing dialysis with differing prognostic factors and to determine whether screening is targeted to healthier women who live longer. METHODS: Using the US Renal Data System, we identified 17,090 women aged 50 years or older who started dialysis in 1997. We tracked women for 5 years to ascertain their use of screening mammography or death. RESULTS: The 5-year survival rate was 25%. The biennial screening mammography rate was 25%, ranging from 12% for women aged 80 years or older to 69% for women who were ever on the transplant list. Women who were screened in the past year had a lower death rate than those who were not (hazards ratio, 0.55; 95% confidence interval, 0.51-0.59). Yet, 2198 women (13%) who died within 5 years underwent screening, and 2004 women (12%) who lived more than 5 years while receiving dialysis did not undergo screening. CONCLUSIONS: Screening mammography rates are appropriately low among women undergoing dialysis because the 5-year survival rate is low. Screening is being targeted to women who are healthier and live longer. However, targeting could be improved by increasing screening in the few women undergoing dialysis with substantial life expectancies while decreasing screening in most women undergoing dialysis who live less than 5 years.     

African American patients' perspectives on medical decision making

BACKGROUND: The medical literature offers little information about how older African Americans view the medical decision-making process. We sought to describe the perspectives of older African American patients in a primary care clinic as they consider a medical decision. METHODS: We interviewed 25 African American patients older than 50 years who had discussed flexible sigmoidoscopy with their primary care provider. Interviews were analyzed using qualitative methods. RESULTS: Patients listed concerns about cancer and health, risks and benefits, their own understanding of the test, and the recommendation of the provider as the most important factors in their decision. Most patients wanted information about medical tests and procedures to increase their understanding and to provide reassurance rather than to guide decision making. Most patients explained that they wanted the provider to make medical decisions because of his or her training and experience. Despite this, many expressed a sense of ownership or control over one's own body. Patients thought trust was built by a health care provider's honesty, patience, kindness, interest, and continuity of care. CONCLUSIONS: Although traditional models of informed consent have emphasized providing patients with information to guide autonomous decision making, patients may want this information for other reasons. Fully informing patients about their medical condition increases understanding and provides reassurance. Because many of these patients want their provider to participate in making medical decisions, he or she should not only provide information but should also provide guidance to the patient.     

Current subjective state of health, and longitudinal psychological well-being over a period of 10 years, in a cohort of adults with congenital cardiac disease

OBJECTIVE: To examine the current subjective state of health, and the longitudinal course of psychological well-being, in adult patients with congenital cardiac malformations. METHODS: Our study concerns the second follow-up of a cohort of patients with congenital cardiac malformations. We examined 362 consecutive patients, aged from 20 to 46 years, who underwent surgical procedures for treatment of congenital cardiac disease between 1968 and 1980, specifically for treatment of atrial and ventricular septal defects, tetralogy of Fallot, transposition, and pulmonary stenosis. The patients were submitted to extensive medical and psychological examination. During psychological examination, in which all patients were seen by the same psychologist (EvR), patients filled in questionnaires concerning their current subjective state of health, using the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and psychological well-being, answering the Heart Patients Psychological Questionnaire. The data we acquired at their first follow-up was used to measure the longitudinal course of psychological well-being over the intervening period of 10 years. RESULTS: When compared to a reference group, the patients assessed their state of health less favourably concerning physical functioning, but more favourable with regard to social functioning, bodily pain, and limitations of role due to emotional problems. Younger female patients reported more limitations of role due to physical functioning than did the female patients who were older. Patients with transposition showed a negative trend for their subjective state of health, but reported the least bodily pain. Within the overall group of patients, displeasure had increased, while social inhibition had decreased, over the intervening period of 10 years. CONCLUSION: Extra attention should be paid to the subjective experiences of young female patients with congenital cardiac disease. The patients with transposed arterial trunks seem overall to experience poorer physical health.     

Treatment of chronic renal insufficiency in the diabetic by dialysis and transplantation

The number of diabetics with end stage renal disease (ESRD) is growing. The best treatment at the lowest cost possible should be offered to all diabetics if therapeutic facilities are available. Such a policy requires that all dialysis methods and transplantation should be available and that transfer from one method to another should always be allowable. Results observed among insulin and non insulin-dependent diabetics are improving steadily, even in the older age group. However they are inferior to those observed in non diabetic people of the same age. Adequate medical care, including excellent control of high blood pressure and good control of blood glucose levels should reduce the frequency of severe complications including cardiac, ocular and peripheral vascular lesions. In diabetic patients under forty years of age, renal transplantation using a kidney from a cadaver or a related donor should be the first choice. However, for most patients dialysis methods are required as the only treatment or while waiting for a transplant. Very encouraging results are obtained with both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. If home dialysis is considered, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) offers the opportunity to treat many insulin-dependent or non dependent diabetics at home even those in the high risk population because of age and/or cardio-vascular instability. CAPD offers excellent control of blood glucose levels using the intraperitoneal route to administer insulin. Results obtained are discussed from data in the literature and from a survey of 124 insulin-dependent diabetic cases with ESRD treated in the Department of Nephrology of the Hospital de La Pitié from 1973 to 1984.     

Treatment of end-stage diabetic nephropathy: over a decade of experience at one institution

Results of treatment of end-stage renal disease in 139 patients with diabetes mellitus revealed survival of 76% at 1 year and 48% at 5 years. These results compare favorably with other reports from Europe and the United States, probably because of the greater number of patients receiving renal transplants, and possibly because of the use of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis as a recent treatment modality. Patients not receiving transplants were much older (mean age, 47.8 years) than those receiving transplants. Of those not given transplants, survival was best on CAPD. Comparison of those surviving at least 3 years was made with those expiring in the first year. Long-term survivors were younger, had diabetes for a shorter period, but had higher mean blood pressures and serum creatinine values than short-term survivors. Short-term survivors also had over a 50% incidence of prior myocardial infarction or cardiorespiratory arrest, while no long-term survivors had such a history. Long-term survivors were also more likely to have received a transplant, and short-term survivors were more likely to have received intermittent peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis. A transplant from a living related donor is the treatment of choice for diabetics under age 40 and perhaps for older patients as well. The choice among CAPD, hemodialysis and cadaver transplant requires consideration of many factors.     

Developing a conceptual framework for understanding illness and attitudes in older, urban African Americans with diabetes

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to better understand how older African Americans with diabetes view their illness, and to develop a conceptual framework for approaching their care. METHODS: Researchers conducted interviews of 19 African American patients 65 years or older who attended clinics at an urban academic medical center. The mean age of the patients was 73 years, 58% were female, 63% had a complication from diabetes, and 58% were taking insulin. Patients were asked open-ended questions about how diabetes affected their lives and their attitudes toward treatment. Data were analyzed through a grounded-theory perspective. RESULTS: Patients showed variation in the degree to which they believed that diabetes affected their lives and how aggressive they wished treatment to be. Themes included issues of quality of life, health beliefs, and the social context. Paradoxical, contradictory statements were common, expressing ambivalence and uncertainty regarding the effect of the illness and the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Wide variation exists in the attitudes of older African Americans toward their diabetes and treatment. Patients frequently expressed ambivalence toward the care of their illness. Providers should explore these issues and help patients resolve their ambivalence if patient preferences are to be respected in the overall treatment plan.     

Prevalence and correlates of physician recommendations to exercise among older adults.

BACKGROUND: This study explored the prevalence of and factors associated with physician suggestions to exercise in a sample of older adults. METHODS: We conducted telephone interviews of a random sample of members of two Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in Northern California. Participants were 893 community-dwelling older adults of whom 63% were women, 52% were married, and 12% were in a minority group. Mean years of education was 14.8 +/- (2.6) and mean years of age was 74.9 +/- (6.5). The associations between patient self-reports of ever receiving physician recommendations to exercise and the following categories of variables were assessed: demographics, health-related quality of life, medical conditions, health/risk behaviors, and health knowledge/interest/satisfaction. RESULTS: The prevalence of older adults in this study ever receiving a physician suggestion to exercise was 48.2%. In a multivariate logistic regression model, being younger, sedentary, and having a higher body mass index were independently (p < or = .05) and positively associated with increased reports of having ever received a physician's advice to exercise. Those who were precontemplators (not thinking about changing physical activity behavior), and those who reported greater frequency of endurance exercise were less likely to report receiving a physician recommendation to exercise (p < or = .05). CONCLUSIONS: Although physician advice appeared to be targeted to subgroups that could benefit, physician advice on exercise could be particularly increased for patients over 75 years of age, those currently not thinking about an increase in physical activity, and those currently active patients who may benefit from ongoing physician advice to promote maintenance.     

Psychological response and quality of life after transplantation: a comparison between heart, lung, liver and kidney recipients

PRINCIPLES: Various non-specific questionnaires were used to measure quality of life and psychological wellbeing of patients after organ transplantation. At present cross-organ studies dealing specifically with the psychological response to a transplanted organ are non-existent in German-speaking countries. METHODS: The Transplant Effects Questionnaire TxEQ-D and the SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire were used to examine the psychological response and quality of life of 370 patients after heart, lung, liver or kidney transplantation. The organ groups were compared with regard to psychosocial parameters. RESULTS: 72% of patients develop a feeling of responsibility for the received organ and its function. This feeling is even stronger towards the patient's key relationships i.e. family, friends, the treatment team and the donor. 11.6% worry about the transplanted organ. Heart and lung patients report significantly fewer concerns than liver and kidney patients. Overall, only a minority of patients report feelings of guilt towards the donor (2.7%), problems in disclosing their transplant to others (2.4%), or difficulties in complying with medical orders (3.5%). Lung transplant patients show significantly better adherence. CONCLUSIONS: A feeling of responsibility towards those one is close to and towards the donor is a common psychological phenomenon after transplantation of an organ. Conscious feelings of guilt and shame are harboured by only a minority of patients. The fact that heart and lung patients worry less about their transplant might have primarily to do with the greater medical and psychosocial support in this group.     

Meldung von Patienten zur Transplantation

Kidney transplantation is in most cases the first choice for renal replacement procedures for advanced chronic and end-stage renal failure and is clearly superior to chronic dialysis treatment with respect to long-term survival. As far back as 1999 Wolfe et al. reported that the long-term mortality (>18?months) of recipients of a kidney transplant from deceased donors was reduced by 68% compared to dialysis patients remaining on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. In the immediate postoperative period the mortality of transplantation patients initially increases compared to waiting list patients but as early as 244?days after transplantation this effect turns to the opposite so that the cumulative mortality after transplantation is lower than for dialysis patients. The best form of transplantation is a preemptive (living) transplantation because this is coupled with the best survival of both transplants and patients. This is independent of age, underlying disease and ethnicity etc. On the basis of these results and due to a general increase in dialysis patients in recent years the number of waiting list patients for kidney transplants continuously rose before a plateau was reached in the last 2?years. Even if individual studies could repeatedly show an advantage of kidney transplantation, the individual factors associated with a large or small advantage for transplantation have so far been insufficiently described. Furthermore, there are currently few data on how the relative advantage of transplantation compared to dialysis changes in the course of time. This is even more important with respect to the fact that dialysis patients are becoming older and have more comorbidities and the simultaneous increase in waiting time for kidney transplantation due to the lack of organs.