Table 1.

Studies Included in Systematic Review

Reference	Study design	Study follow-up	Level of evidencea
Carson et al., 200921	Prospective cohort study of patients with GFR<30 and age ≥70 receiving either CM or dialysis	95.0%	1
Chanda et al., 201017	Retrospective cohort study of patients with GFR<15 receiving either CM or dialysis	n/a	2
Ellam et al., 200919	Retrospective cohort study of patients with GFR<15 receiving CM	n/a	2
Joly et al., 200320	Prospective cohort study of patients with CrCl<10 and age ≥80 receiving either CM or dialysis	100%	1
Murtagh et al., 200718	Retrospective cohort study of patients with GFR<15 and age >75 receiving either CM or dialysis	n/a	2
Smith et al., 200315	Prospective cohort study of patients with GFR<15 recommended for CM by multidisciplinary team	100%	1
Wong et al., 200716	Prospective cohort study of patients with GFR<30 receiving CM	100%	1
DeBiase et al., 200829	Observational study of patients with age >75 and GFR<15 recommended for CM	n/a	2
Murphy et al., 200925	Cross-sectional survey of patients with GFR<30 receiving CM	n/a	2
Murtagh et al., 200722	Cross-sectional survey of patients with GFR<15 receiving CM	n/a	2
Murtagh et al., 201023	Longitudinal survey of patients with GFR<15 receiving CM, data presented from the month prior to death	n/a	2
Saini et al., 200624	Cross-sectional survey of patients with GFR<15 receiving CM; survey also administered to comparison group of patients with terminal malignancy	n/a	2
Yong et al., 200928	Cross-sectional survey of patients with GFR<15 receiving either CM or dialysis	n/a	2

GFR, glomerular filtration rate; CM, conservative management; CrCl, creatinine clearance; n/a, not applicable.

^aBased on Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) criteria: level of evidence 1=good-quality, patient-oriented evidence; level of evidence 2=limited-quality, patient-oriented evidence; level of evidence 3=other evidence.