The expected lifespan of a patient receiving dialysis in the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) report was approximately 8 years for dialysis patients 40 to 44 years of age and approximately 4.5 years for those 60 to 64 years of age. This is a highly variable range that is dependent on many factors such as:
race,
age of patient,
quality of dialysis treatment,
other medical issues in the patient (comorbidities),
quality of pre-dialysis treatment,
control of potassium levels, and
overall compliance of the patient.
Some patients do dialysis as a bridge (time to locate an appropriate donor kidney) to getting a kidney transplant (renal transplant). If a patient is successful in getting a transplant and is able to stop dialysis, their survival prognosis increases greatly.