Introduction: To describe the demographics of the paediatric renal replacement therapy (RRT) population under the age of 18 years in the UK and to analyse changes in demography with time.
Methods: Data were collected from all 13 paediatric renal centres within the UK. A series of crosssectional and longitudinal analyses were performed to describe the demographics of paediatric RRT patients.
Results: A total of 861 children and young people under 18 with established renal failure (ERF) were receiving treatment at paediatric nephrology centres in 2012. At the census date, 80.2% had a functioning transplant, 10.6% were receiving haemodialysis (HD) and 9.2% were receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD). In patients aged <16 years the prevalence of ERF was 56.7 pmarp and the incidence 9.0 pmarp. A third of the prevalent patients had one or more reported comorbidities. At transfer to adult services, 81.5% of patients had a functioning renal transplant. Preemptive transplantation was seen to occur in a third of children starting RRT under 16 years, with lower rates seen in girls and ethnic minorities. Over the past 15 years for those referred early, there has been a rise in pre-emptive transplantation rates, rising from 26.2% in 1998-2002 to 36.3% in 2008-2012. Over the same period there has also been an increase in living donation from 7.1% to 18%. Survival in childhood amongst children starting RRT was the lowest in those aged less than two years.
Conclusions: The findings of this report are similar to last year with continued improvement in data quality and electronic submission of data returns. The data provided in this report show slowly increasing trends of incidence and prevalence in children with established renal failure.
© 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.