OBJECTIVEChronic renal failure (CRF) of childhood is not rare. The prognosis of CRF is very poor because of severe systemic complications. A nation-wide survey was conducted and data of hospitalized children (younger than 14 years old) with CRF during the period of 1990 to 2002 were analyzed. The aim was to investigate the epidemiology, natural history, clinical-pathological characteristics, treatment and outcome of the hospitalized children with CRF.

METHODSQuestionnaires concerning children with CRF were designed and distributed to the doctors of 91 hospitals in China. The criterion of CRF was creatinine clearance (CCr) < 50 ml/(min x 1.73 m(2)). The data were collected and analyzed.

RESULTSFrom January 1, 1990 to December 31, 2002, 1658 hospitalized children were diagnosed as CRF. The average annual cases of childhood CRF accounted for 1.31% (ranged from 0.72% to 1.75%) of the hospitalized cases with urologic-kidney diseases. In a comparison between 1990 - 1996 and 1997 - 2002, there were significant increases in the average annual number of cases of childhood CRF and the case ratio of CRF to urologic-kidney diseases (82 +/- 27 vs. 181 +/- 45 and 0.98 +/- 0.21 vs. 1.56 +/- 0.17, respectively, P < 0.001). Complete records were available for 1268 patients. The male to female ratio was 1.49:1. The mean age at the disease onset was 8.18 years. The mean duration of pre-diagnosis of CRF was 2.53 years. In this study, the main primary renal diseases causing CRF were chronic glomerulonephritis and nephrotic syndrome (52.7%). One-fourth of all cases had congenital and hereditary renal diseases, and the majority were renal hypoplasia and dysplasia. The main manifestations of CRF were anemia, gastrointestinal disorders, edema, hypertension and growth retardation. The mean serum creatinine and BUN were 594.7 micromol/L and 39.1 mmol/L, respectively. The cases with renal function >or= grade IV accounted for 80% of all cases. By renal ultrasound scanning, one-third of CRF children were found to have renal atrophy and a part of patients had cystic disorder. Most of the cases received conservative treatment. Dialysis therapy (including 66.5% of hemodialysis and 33.5% of peritoneal) was given to 15.8% of the patients. Twenty-nine cases received renal transplantation. The rate of graft survival was 93.1%. Follow-up was carried out for to 230 cases, the mean duration of follow-up was 2.36 years. One hundred and sixty-seven patients died during hospitalization over the 13-year review period. The main causes of death were cardiac failure and infections in addition to uremia.

CONCLUSIONThe incidence of CRF in children showed an increasing trend year after year. The main age of onset of the disease was school-age. The main primary renal diseases causing CRF were acquired renal diseases. Conservative treatment was the main therapy of CRF, but renal replacement therapy was initiated in some of the cases. The obvious difference between follow-up cases and lost cases warrants the need to establish a management system of childhood CRF.