Descriptive study of the first month of situation of the covid-19 pandemic in a hospital dialysis unit

Abstract

Dialysis patients are at risk group for SARS-CoV-2 infection and possibly have more complications. Healthcare professionals have faced an unprecedented pandemic, for which little information existed. The objective of this study was to describe the experience of a Madrid hospital haemodialysis unit during the first month of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, both in relation to patients and healthcare personnel. Likewise, it is intended to report the health actions. The total number of patients in the unit was 90. In all patients, the PCR test was performed. 37 (41.1%) tested positive for COVID-19, of these 22 (59.4%) were symptomatic and 15 (40.5%) were asymptomatic. Of the positive patients, 16 (43.2%) required hospital admission, 6 of whom died (16.2%). The deceased patients were older than the survivors. Health professionals were 44, of whom 15 (34%) had symptoms. The Occupational Health service only performed PCR on the symptomatic group, having 4 professionals (9%) positive PCR. However, after considering the clinical / radiological criteria, 9 professionals were diagnosed as COVID-19 positive, 1 of them requiring hospital admission. Conclusions: A high prevalence of positive COVID-19 was detected in patients in the dialysis unit, highlighting the high number of asymptomatic patients detected by PCR screening. Some healthcare professionals presented some type of symptoms corresponding to the COVID-19 disease, however, few cases were detected with positive PCR.