Mortality risks among various primary renal diseases in children and adolescents on chronic dialysis

There is little information available on the association between primary renal disease (PRD) and long-term mortality in the pediatric dialysis population. The objective of this study was to explore mortality risks in children and adolescents on chronic dialysis, specifically focused on the risk of various PRDs. The study cohort included children and adolescents with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (aged < 20 years) who had received dialysis for at least 90 days between 2000 and 2014 and were identified from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance medical claims. A total of 530 children and adolescents were included in the study. The median age of the included patients was 13.6 years and 305 (57.5%) patients were males. One hundred and seven patients died during the follow-up period and the median survival time was 6.0 years. Mortality was highest in the youngest patients. For patients with the following PRDs, mortality was significantly higher than that in patients with primary glomerulonephritis: secondary glomerulonephritis (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 2.50; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03–6.08), urologic disorder (aHR: 4.77; 95% CI: 1.69–13.46), and metabolic diseases (aHR: 5.57; 95% CI: 1.84–16.85). Several kinds of PRDs appear to have high mortality risks in the pediatric dialysis population. These differences in mortality risk highlight the importance of the focused clinical management of these high-risk subgroups.