| [ Summary ] |
The ultimate goal for treatment or children with end stage-renal disease is the achievement of normal growth and development. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is the main dialytic modality for children. According to the national registry data on children undergoing PD in Japan, 50 to 60 new patients under 16 years of age are enrolled each year. One third of patients were under 6 years old, indicating that PD is the treatment of choice in younger children. Patient survival rates, technique survival rates, peritonitis rates and catheter survival rates have improved recently. However, these rates were worse for children under 6 years of age. Careful management is needed for this age group. Also, intensive nutritional therapy with nasogastric feeding is recommended for normal growth. Because chronic renal disease results in severe psychological and social stresses, supportive care for both the patient and the family is very important. The proportion of patients requiring longterm PD has increased because of a severe national shortage of cadaver donors for renal transplantation in Japan. The incidence of encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis tends to increase in relation to the duration of PD. |