The Impact of Change of Renal Replacement Therapy Modality on Sleep Quality in Patients with End-stage Renal Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: Sleep disorders are common and multi-factorial in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Sleep disorders and disturbance have a negative impact on wellbeing and quality of life.

Objective: To assess the impact of a change in renal replacement therapy (RRT) modality on sleep quality and sleep disturbance in patients with ESRD.

Data Sources: Multiple electronic databases were searched without publication type/period restrictions. The reference lists of all included articles were manually searched for additional citations. Non-published data was identified by hand searching key conference abstracts.

Study Eligibility Criteria: Participants of interest were adult patients with ESRD requiring RRT [conventional haemodialysis (HD), short daily HD, nocturnal HD, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), continuous cycler-assisted peritoneal dialysis (CCPD) or transplantation]. The exposure or intervention of interest was switch of RRT modality.

Study Appraisal: Two reviewers independently assessed all studies for inclusion and extracted relevant data.

Results: Sixteen studies with a combined total of 670 patients and 191 controls were included for review and described in detail. Looking specifically at restless leg syndrome, symptoms resolved in over 60% of affected patients with a switch to increased intensity RRT (either intensive HD, CCPD or transplant). Meta-analysis of the nine studies that looked specifically at sleep apnoea parameters again favoured intensive RRT over standard/conventional RRT (conventional HD or CAPD) with statistical significance [Risk ratio 0.66 (95% CI 0.51-0.84)]. Meta-analysis of all studies favoured a switch to increased intensity RRT in terms of overall sleep quality, with statistical significance [Risk ratio 0.58 (95% CI 0.40-8.83)].

Limitations: Restriction to the English language may have introduced selection bias. Funnel plot analysis suggested there was also an element of publication bias. Studies were heterogeneous in terms of patient selection, means of sleep quality assessment and modality switch.

Conclusions And Implications Of Key Findings: Sleep disturbance, sleep apnoea and restless legs syndrome all tend to improve when a switch is made to intensive dialysis or transplant. This is important information for patients struggling with disturbed sleep and marked fatigue. This hypothesis-generating review highlights the need for more high quality prospective research in the area.