Children with chronic renal failure in the Federal Republic of Germany: I. Epidemiology, modes of treatment, survival. Arbeits- gemeinschaft für Pädiatrische Nephrologie.

By a nation-wide retrospective survey in the Federal Republic of Germany, epidemiological data were obtained on children with chronic renal failure (CRF) up to the age of 16.0 years. During a 4-year period (1972-1975), an incidence of 6 new cases per year of CRF occurred when referring to a 1 million population of the same age. The incidence of preterminal CRF (serum creatinine greater than 2 mg/dl to end-stage) was 4.4 and its prevalence 6.4 per million per year. The incidence of terminal CRF, analyzed for a 6-year period from 1972 to 1977 increased only slightly with time (from 4.4 to 5.4 per million of the same age per year). The proportion of children with terminal CRF admitted yearly for renal replacement therapy increased during the observation time from 27% to 79% up to the age of 10 years and from 80% to 96% between 10 and 16 years of age. The number of patients alive with terminal CRF rose significantly from 11.9 in 1972 to 22.0 per 1 million of the same age in 1977. At the end of 1977, 46% of all pediatric patients on renal replacement therapy had a functioning graft, compared to 38% in 1972. The increasing number of renal transplantations was accompanied by shortening of the waiting period from first dialysis to grafting. The patient survival on dialysis and after transplantation rose significantly during two subsequent 4-year periods.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)