Materıals And Method:
Between 11 March 2020 – 11 March 2021, PCR positive COVID-19 hemodialysis patients from five dialysis centers, including our center which is a pandemic hemodialysis center as a result of the decision taken by provincial health authorities were included in the study. There were 650 hemodialysis patients in these five dialysis centers.
Additionally, there are 450 patients with kidney transplantation followed up in the organ transplant center of our hospital. These patients can also consult the physicians in our transplant center in the presence of any symptoms related to COVID-19 infection. However, there are also transplant patients in our city and neighboring provinces who are not followed up by our organ transplant center. These patients prefer to be followed up in centers in other cities where they were transplanted, and we do not have data on their numbers.
Except for the patients whose PCR test is positive from external centers and referred to us; in our hospital PCR for SARS-CoV-2 has been performed in all patients admitted with fever, dyspnea, cough, loss of smell/taste, abdominal pain diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, fatigue, arthralgia with the nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal specimens. All the patients with suggestive symptoms of COVID-19 were also evaluated with chest computerized tomography. The presence of ground-glass opacities, crazy-paving patterns, and consolidation areas was defined as the findings consistent with COVID-19 disease. Patients with the above-mentioned findings but whose Covid-19 diagnosis was not confirmed by repeated PCR tests and outpatients were not included in the study.