Seminars in Dialysis. 2020;00:1–11. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sdi | 1 © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
1 | INTRODUCTION
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD)
in the pediatric population are widely prevalent and are associated
with devastating consequences. The most recent annual report of
the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) reported an ESRD
point prevalence of 99.1 per million in children and adolescents.
1
Over the past few decades, tremendous advances have been made
toward the management of CKD and ESRD in children to prevent the
associated morbidity and mortality. A vital role in these advances
is of renal replacement therapies (RRT). The introduction of dialysis
and eventually renal transplant has greatly impacted the quality of
life and survival in patients with ESRD. In 2016, 702 pediatric ESRD
patients (51.2%) commenced treatment with hemodialysis (HD), 353
(25.7%) with (peritoneal dialysis) PD, and 275 (20.0%) received renal
transplants (Figure 1).
1
The number of children who were waitlisted
for a renal transplant in 2016 was 1,119 and the median waiting time
for the first transplant was 12.94 months.
1
The median first trans-
plant time may be even longer in patients with immunological sensi-
tization and other comorbid conditions. Despite paramount success
with renal transplant, a considerable number of patients continue
to be dependent on dialysis modalities in the interim period as the
mainstay of treatment.
Once a decision to start dialysis has been made, another im-
portant decision is to choose the best dialysis modality for the
patient to provide optimum dialysis. The concept of optimum dial-
ysis is tricky as the perception of optimum dialysis is different for
children and parents as compared with the nephrologist. Children
and parents want a dialysis modality that would take as little of
their time as possible, be painless and would still allow the child to
Received: 23 October 2019
|
Revised: 8 February 2020
|
Accepted: 18 February 2020
DOI: 10.1111/sdi.12863
REVIEW ARTICLE
Nocturnal home hemodialysis in children: Advantages,
implementation, and barriers
Manpreet K. Grewal
1
| Arul Mehta
2
| Ronith Chakraborty
3
| Rupesh Raina
3,4
1
Department of Pediatric Nephrology,
Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit,
MI, USA
2
Saint Ignatius High School, Cleveland, OH,
USA
3
Akron Nephrology Associates/Cleveland
Clinic Akron General, Akron, OH, USA
4
Department of Nephrology, Akron
Children's Hospital, Akron, OH, USA
Correspondence
Rupesh Raina, Department of Nephrology,
Cleveland Clinic Akron General and Akron
Children's Hospital, Akron, OH, USA.
Email: rraina@akronchildrens.org; raina@
akronnephrology.com
Abstract
Chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in children are major
health concerns worldwide with increasing incidence and prevalence. Renal replace-
ment therapies and kidney transplants have remarkably improved the management
of patients with ESRD in both adult and pediatric populations. Kidney transplant has
the best patient outcomes, but many a time it has a considerable waiting period. In
the meantime, the majority of patients with pediatric ESRD are dependent on di-
alysis. The conventionally utilized hemodialysis regimen is the three times weekly,
in-center hemodialysis. Many studies have demonstrated the unfavorable long-term
morbidity associated with the conventional regimen. Intensified dialysis programs,
which include extended nocturnal hemodialysis or short daily hemodialysis, are being
increasingly advocated over the past two decades. In addition to having much bet-
ter clinical outcomes as compared with the conventional regimen, the flexibility to
provide dialysis at home serves as a great incentive. PubMed/Medline, Embase and
Cochrane databases for literature on nocturnal home hemodialysis in children with
ESRD were extensively searched. Contrary to the noticeable literature available on
adult home hemodialysis, a small number of studies exist in the pediatric popula-
tion. In this review, the benefits, implementation and associated barriers of nocturnal
home hemodialysis in children were addressed.