Chronic dialysis in children and adolescents - The 1996 Annual Report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study

The 1996 annual report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Coo perative Study (NAPRTCS) summarizes data submitted from 130 centers on 2,20 8 patients: in whom 2,787 independent courses of dialysis were performed be tween 1 January 1992 and 16 January 1996. Approximately two-thirds of the d ialysis population were maintained on peritoneal dialysis (PD), with automa ted PD remaining the preferred modality. There were 964 episodes of periton itis in 1,018 patient years, yielding an overall peritpnitis rate of 1 epis ode every 13 patient months. More PD patients attended school full time tha n hemodialysis (HD) patients at baseline (77% vs. 45%), which continued at 6, 12, and 24 months of followup. There were fewer Hispanic patients who we re full-time students, whether on HD or PD, compared with white or black pa tients; 18% of Hispanic patients did not attend school, even though they we re medically capable. The majority of dialysis courses terminated due to tr ansplantation (54%), with change in dialysis modality the next most-common reason (28%). Early dialysis termination for any reason was seen more often in HD than PD (40% vs. 23% at 6 months), but by 24 months similar percenta ges of PD and HD courses had been terminated (75% HD, 72% PD). The most-com mon PD access was a Tenckhoff catheter with a single cuff, a straight tunne l and lateral exit site. The majority of HD accesses were external percutan eous catheters, with the sublcavian vein the most-common site. Erythropoiet in was administered in 93% of HD and PD patients at 24 months.