A large diversity of ostearticular complaints has been described in patients in long-term hemodialysis. OBJECTIVE: To verify the proportion and the type of musculoskeletal complaints in patients in maintenance hemodialysis, at three centers of metropolitan Recife, and to relate these complains to the following variables: sex, ethnic group, patient's current age and when the dialysis began, and dialitic treatment time. METHODS: Firstly, questionnaires were applied to 197 patients, distributed at the three centers from March 2001 to January 2002. After excluding 35 patients with previous diagnosis of rheumatic disease, we investigatied the presence of musculoskeletal signs and/or symptoms in 162 patients. The average age was 47,3 years old, and 43,8 years old was the average age at the beginning of the treatment; 94 patients (58%) were men and 120 patients (74.1%) were not Caucasian. The average time of the dialitic treatment was 44,1 months, and polysulphone membrane was used in all of them. RESULTS: Musculoskeletal manifestations were observed in 55 (34%) of the patients on this research. One type of manifestation was presented by 38 of these patients, and 17 patients presented more than one type (16 presented two and 1 presented three types), making up a total of 73 manifestations, distributed among joints (44), bones (18), neuromuscular (6) and periarticular (5) structures. Arthralgia was responsible for 46.6% of all musculoskeletal complaints and the knee was the joint most injured (52.9% of all cases). Bone pain was the second common complaint (21.9%), periarticular changes were responsible for 6.8% of musculoskeletal manifestations, and carpal tunnel syndrome, bone deformities and joint tumours occurred in 4.1%, 2.7% and 2.7% of all manifestations, respectively. Among 55 patients, joint changes were found in 72.7% of them, bone changes in 32.7%, neuromuscular complaints in 10.8% and periarticular in 9.1% of the patients. The relation between the dialitic treatment time (59,8 months) and the development of the musculoskeletal manifestations (p < 0.001) was observed in this research. CONCLUSIONS: According to this information, we can conclude that the proportion of musculoskeletal complaints on our patients was 34%; the joint problems were the most frequently observed; and arthralgia was the most common complaint. Except for the dialitic treatment time, all the other variables were not associated with the musculoskeletal manifestations.
hemodialysis; musculoskeletal manifestations; dialitic treatment time
