Preventing Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients Receiving Hemodialysis

Adverse cardiovascular (CV) events are the most common cause of death in patients receiving hemodialysis, but our usual approaches to CV risk reduction in the general population have shown little benefit in hemodialysis patients. In this randomized trial in Australia and Canada, researchers explored the benefit of ω-3 fatty acid supplementation by randomizing 1228 adults (mean age, 64) on maintenance hemodialysis to 4 g of ω-3 fatty acids daily (including 1.6 g of eicosapentaenoic acid and 0.8 g of docosahexaenoic acid) or placebo (see Figure 1). One third of participants had known CV disease.