What is the life expectancy for people with CKD5?
It depends – on whether your have dialysis (or a kidney transplant) or not.
At stage 5 CKD, your GFR will be under 15 ml/min (normal is 90-120 ml/min), and you will be very unwell.
Stage 5 CKD is also called end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or kidney failure. It means that you will need dialysis or a kidney transplant soon.
If you do not have dialysis, you may live 1-3 months (upto 6 months, usually).
If you have dialysis, you may live 5 years, on average. If you have advanced CKD, when your kidneys fail, they cannot get better. Your life expectancy depends on many things, especially your age, and the cause of the kidney failure.
Average survival for people with stage 5 CKD
- Dialysis helps people live for another 5 years, on average. However this figure is very dependent on your age starting dialysis and the cause of kidney failure, e.g.
- If you start dialysis at about the age of 40 years, the average survival is 7 years (all causes). At that age, most people would expect to live another 40 years. So ESRD has a significant effect on longevity. Individual ‘better’ causes – e.g. polycystic kidney disease and obstructive nephropathy – have a better outlook
- If you have diabetes, the survival for people of all ages, on average, is 3 years
- If you have renovascular disease, it is 2 years
- If you have myeloma/amyloidosis, it is 18 months.
Age at start of dialysis and survival for patients with stage 5 of CKD
This graph below shows average survival for patients of different ages with CKD5, compared to the general population.
Percentage 5 year survival for people with stage 5 CKD
Another way of looking at survival, is to look at the % chance of surviving 5 years from the start of dialysis.
- 50% of people with ESRD will live for 5 years, and 80% for one year. The risk is greatest during the first 3 months after starting dialysis
- Annual mortality is 10%
- For comparison, the 5 year survival rate for the general population (matched for age and sex) is 90-95%
- This graph compares % 5 year survival for ESRD, with other diseases:
As you can see, survival with ESRD is less than many types of cancer.
Transplant survival in stage 5 CKD
- Deceased donor kidney transplants last 10 years on average
- Living kidney donor transplants last 15 years on average.
Note. So either type of transplant can significantly prolong your life.
Conclusion
Dialysis (and/or a kidney transplant) can help people with kidney failure live for many years. The outlook is very variable depending on your age and the cause of ESRD.
And it is true that overall mortality is about 15 times higher than the general population for patients receiving dialysis.
The main cause of death in patients receiving dialysis is cardiovascular disease, followed by infections. Thus far, studies have shown a comparable outlook for HD and peritoneal dialysis.
Summary
We have described what is the life expectancy for people with CKD5. We hope it has been helpful.
Last Reviewed on 21 November 2023