Reduced Stroke Risk After Parathyroidectomy in End-Stage Renal Disease

Research information on the risk of stroke in patients with dialysis-dependent end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who have undergone parathyroidectomy (PTX) is scant. We used a nationwide health insurance claims database to select all patients with dialysis-dependent ESRD age 18 years and older for the study population. Of the patients with ESRD, we selected 1083 patients who had undergone PTX between 1998 and 2006 as the PTX group and frequency-matched 1083 patients with ESRD by sex, age, years since the disease diagnosis, and the year of undergoing PTX as the non-PTX group. We used a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis to measure the risk of stroke for the PTX group compared with the non-PTX group after adjusting for sex, age, premium-based income, urbanization, and comorbidity. The mean follow-up periods were 6.08 and 5.38 years for the PTX and non-PTX groups, respectively. After adjusting for previously mentioned variables, significant risk reductions of stroke (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.57, 95% confidence interval = 0.41-0.79), particularly those of hemorrhagic stroke (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.34, 95% confidence interval = 0.20-0.57), with PTX were observed. Chronologically, the risk of stroke in the PTX group decreased in the second year after PTX and persisted for >3 years. PTX reduces the risk of stroke, particularly that of hemorrhagic stroke, in patients with dialysis-dependent ESRD. Other factors for risk reduction include sex (females), an age <65 years, and the presence of comorbidity.