In-PatientPediatric Nephrology

Introduction

SIUT is the only hospital in a city of over 16 million that provides comprehensive pediatric nephrology services that cater to an entire spectrum of renal diseases in children.

Each year we perform over 15,000 maintenance dialysis sessions in our paediatric patients. We initially started with a single pediatric nephrology clinic but soon had to have another out patient session to cater to children suffering from kidney stones. It is not surprising to find children as young as 1 month of age attending it. Nearly 400 patients attend these clinics weekly.

All diagnostic and treatment facilities for a variety of childhood kidney diseases including nephrotic syndrome, acute and chronic glomerulonephritis, hereditary renal disease, renal failure etc. are provided free of cost. Expensive alternative medications like cyclosporine are provided free with appropriate follow-up. The unit also runs a collaborative out patient with urology unit where care for children with chronic renal failure, hypertension, renal bone disease, growth failure, anemia, and metabolic problems is provided.

Services

The 25 bedded pediatric nephrology ward handles nearly 1500 patients every year ranging from newborn to 15 year olds. It offers pediatric critical care services which include ventilator support, placement of central lines, emergency hemodialysis, Intermittent peritoneal dialysis, and continuous renal replacement therapy. Plasmapheresis, Creation of arteriovenous fistulas, In-Theatre Percutaneous renal biopsies, renal nutritionist services, In-patient schooling for children are all overseen by paediatric nephrology services even if the patients are not admitted to the ward itself. Social Welfare services for the children and their parents are provided in collaboration with SIUT’s social welfare department.

Over 350 renal transplants in children have been successfully performed at SIUT, where starting from a comprehensive pretransplant workup to post transplant care based on current, international pediatric protocols is provided by the pediatric renal transplant team. SIUT was the first institution in the region to transplant a less than 10 kg, 18 month old child who received a kidney from his mother successfully in September 2005. Everything from the specialized workup, to the transplant surgery and lifelong immunosuppressive medications and follow-up are provided free of cost.