Previous results regarding the association between types of β-blockers and outcomes in patients on hemodialysis (HD) were inconsistent. Our study aimed to evaluate patient survival according to the type of β-blockers administered using a large sample of patients with maintenance HD. Our study included patients on maintenance HD patients from a national HD quality assessment program (n = 54,132). We divided included patients into four groups based on their use and type; Group 1 included patients without a prescription of β-blockers, Group 2 included patients with a prescription of dialyzable and cardioselective β-blockers, Group 3 included patients with a prescription of non-dialyzable and non-cardioselective β-blockers, and Group 4 included patients with prescription of non-dialyzable and cardioselective β-blockers. The number of patients in Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 34,514, 2789, 15,808, and 1021, respectively. The 5-year survival rates in Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 69.3%, 66.0%, 68.8%, and 69.2%, respectively. Univariate Cox regression analyses showed the hazard ratios to be 1.10 (95% CI, 1.04-1.17) in Group 2 and 1.05 (95% CI, 1.02-1.09) in Group 3 compared to Group 1. However, multivariate Cox regression analyses did not show statistical significance among the four groups. Our study showed that there was no significant difference in patient survival based on the use or types of β-blockers.
Keywords: hemodialysis; mortality; β-blocker.