Changes in hospital admissions to a tertiary referral nephrology unit during the last decade

During the last decade there have been important socio-economic and health changes in Spain, which dould be reflected in the type of hospital admissio ns to a nephrology unit. We therefore compared the activity of our tertiary referral nephrology unit during the two year periods 1985-6 and 1995-6. We found an increase in the number of admissions (629 to 963), probably due to growth of the population of patients transplanted or on regular hemodia lysis. A slight predominance of males persisted and there was a substancial mean age increase. There was an increase in mean hospital stay but no chan ge in annual death rate. The number of admissions from health zones without a nephrologist increased significantly compared with those with a nephrolo gist. There were more admissions of renal transplant recipients (11% to 35% ) and patients on hemodialysis (18 to 24%) but fewer admissions for hyperte nsion (19.4% to 7.4%). The number of renal biopsies was stable. Among patie nts with primary glomerulonephritis, the commonest diagnosis was "rapidly p rogressive nephritis".