Renal transplantation in infants

Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) are the leading cause of ESRD in children, but the proportion of patients with individual CAKUT entities progressing to ESRD during adulthood and their long-term clinical outcomes are unknown. This study assessed the age at onset of renal replacement therapy (RRT) and patient and renal graft survival in patients with CAKUT across the entire age range.

Reports from experienced centers suggest that recipients of an ABO-incompatible living-donor kidney transplant after reduction of ABO antibodies experience no penalty in graft and patient survival versus ABO-compatible transplants, but confirmation that these results can be widely replicated is lacking.

End-stage renal disease requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) during the neonatal period is a very rare condition, and little information is available regarding long-term RRT and outcomes. To gain more information, we performed a collaborative study on patient characteristics and treatment outcomes in children who started RRT as neonates during their first month of life between 2000 and 2011 who were prospectively registered in the ESPN/ERA-EDTA, the IPPN (since 2007), the Japanese registry, or the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant (ANZDATA) registry. During the first month of life, 264 patients from 32 countries started RRT and were followed for a median of 29 months (interquartile range 11-60 months). Most neonates (242) started on peritoneal dialysis, 21 started on hemodialysis, and 1 patient with a transplant. The most important causes of renal failure were congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract in 141, cystic kidneys in 35, and cortical necrosis in 30. Within 2 years after the start of RRT, 69 children changed dialysis modality and 53 received a renal transplant. After a median of 7 months, 45 children had died, mainly because of infection, resulting in an estimated 2-year survival of 81%, and 5-year survival of 76%. Growth retardation (63%), anemia (55%), and hypertension (57%) were still major problems after 2 years. Thus, relatively good medium-term patient survival may be achieved with RRT started during the neonatal period, but specific therapeutic challenges continue to exist in this age group.