Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)is the occurrence of chronic bronchitis or emphysema, a pair of commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed. This leads to breathing problems. Smoking is one of the commonest causes of COPD. But if a patient starts dialysis, it increases the risk of death and decreases the chance that the patient will receive a transplant, according to recent research.
The research covered 769,984 US dialysis patients over a nine year period - with a large pool like this, the results are very much more reliable. It found that those suffering from COPd had a 20% increased risk of death compared with those who did not have COPD. If the patient also smoked, the risk increased by 28%. Smokers also had a lower chance of getting a transplant compared to non-smokers.
