Patients were followed up until death, technique
failure, or receiving kidney transplantation. The
end of the follow-up period was December 31, 2005.
Complete follow-up was defined as availability of
information to the end of the study or death. The
mean follow-up time was 23.9 months (range 0.2-190.8
months). The present study was approved by Khon
Kaen University Ethics Committee.