Chronic dialysis in children and adolescents. The 2001 NAPRTCS annual report

The 2001 annual report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS) registry includes data on 4,546 dialysis patients. Important trends in dialysis care include a significant increase in the use of peritoneal dialysis catheters with two cuffs (51.6% vs. 36.2%, P<0.001), a Swan neck tunnel (34.1% vs. 20.9%, P<0.001), and a downward pointing exit site (34.9% vs. 29.5%, P<0.001) in patients who initiated dialysis between 1997 and 2000 compared with 1992-1996. Most hemodialysis patients continued to have an external percutaneous catheter as their access at the time of initiation of dialysis (1,550/1.971 patients, 78.6%), but the odds of using a jugular rather than a subclavian vein for these catheters increased by 24% each year between 1992 and 2000. There was a significant trend for increasing use of erythropoietin and by 1996, 96% of patients were prescribed this medication at initiation of dialysis. There was also a modest, but significant, increase in hematocrit in the dialysis registry, as the median hematocrit at 6 months of follow-up was 31% in patients who started dialysis between 1997 and 2000 (P<0.001).