SN Wong, NKC Tse, for Paediatric Renal Diseases Surveillance Team*

Abstract

Since 1998, a limited paediatric renal registry was established by the joint effort of paediatric nephrologists working in 13 public hospitals in Hong Kong. The purpose was to monitor the occurrence of nephrotic syndrome, lupus nephritis, hereditary renal tubular disorders, chronic renal failure, cystic kidney diseases and renal biopsy in children under 15 years of age. The collected data from 1998 to 2000 were analysed and reported. Within the study period, there were about 7 new patients with chronic renal failure each year, and 4-5 patients from the pool of chronic renal failure patients needed to start dialysis treatment or transplantation. There were about 57 new nephrotic patients, 10 lupus nephritis patients per year and 66 patients needed renal biopsies for evaluation. The average incidence of chronic renal failure, endstage renal disease, and nephrotic syndrome were estimated to be respectively 6.2 and 3.8, and 50.5 per million childhood population below 15 years old. The indications and histopathologic findings of renal biopsies by local paediatric nephrologists were reported and were in accordance with overseas practice. This is our first cooperative effort to prospectively obtain epidemiological data on paediatric renal diseases, and it could form a basis to guide us in future planning of service development and academic research.