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.