Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, Vol 12, Issue 1 33-37, Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press
U Querfeld, B Korten, G Naumann and D Michalk
This study reviews medical and psychosocial rehabilitation of children and
adolescents with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and analyses data of young
adults with ESRD from a single centre providing renal replacement therapy
(RRT) for more than 20 years. Data from 30 patients, aged 25±4
(18-34) years receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT) since childhood
were analysed. Medical and psychosocial rehabilitation were assessed by a
medical questionnaire and by chart review. The sociological data were
compared to an aged-matched control population (n=26) with long-standing
diabetes mellitus type I (DM) and to the available national demographic
data. Seventeen patients were treated by dialysis (D) and 13 by
transplantation (TPL). The duration of RRT was 13 (1-21) years. Growth
failure was pronounced in most patients, and a significant number were
suffering from hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, anaemia,
osteodystrophy, hepatitis, and phsical disabilities. Vocational
training/school performance, and employment was not markedly different in
patients with RRT and controls with DM. However, the type of employment was
different with an overrepresentation of lower income jobs in RRT patients.
Most patients with RRT were unmarried and one-third was living with their
parents. These data, largely reflecting early experience of a paediatric
RRT programme, indicate that young adults receiving RRT from childhood have
a multitude of medical and psychosocial problems, providing a continuing
challenge for centres providing RRT. Keywords:
children; renal replacement therapy; rehabilitation
DIALYSIS AND TRANSPLANTATION NEWS
Medical and psychosocial rehabilitation of young adults receiving renal replacement therapy since childhood: a single-centre experience
University Children's Hospital, Joseph-Stelzmann-Strasse 9, 50924 Cologne, Germany
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