The Importance of Raising Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Awareness for Young People and Parents: Young People with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

The Paediatric Nephrology Specialty

Paediatric nephrology brings scope to collaborate amongst various organ specialties, platforms of disease-states, research in clinical and laboratory medicine, and with the intention of more science translating into mainstream practice. In appreciating the care for young people with CKD, paediatric nephrology (like many other paediatric specialties) has long implemented a clinical science ethos and thus conventionally has maintained an academic stance. Whilst nephrology is specific in its own right, paediatric nephrology becomes more intricate because of physicians caring for infants and adolescents with renal disease, Chesney (2005) states:

Clinical Medicine

Clinical Medicine is a very ‘hands on’ from of medical practice, but to emphasize how rapid changes in methodologies take place; if ‘yesterday’s’ protocols, for example, those in renal medicine that might be used to treat young people ‘today’, this could mean a subtle (but significant) difference between patient mortality, survival and morbidity ‘tommorrow’ (Trichopoulos 1996).

The immune system in young renal patients will become heavily compromised owing to infection, RRTs and a variety of other medical regimens. The physician needs to bear knowledge on entities of the immune system/ immunology and inflammation. The immunology discipline is very active in paediatric nephrology; stress needs to be placed on disease states such as glomerulonephritis and hereditary/ congenital disease. Strides have been made with respect to endeavours in transplantation (Jochmans et al. 2010; Jochmans et al. 2011; Jochmans et al. 2012; Montgomery et al. 2011; Montgomery et al. 2012a; Montgomery et al. 2012b; Rosenblum et al. 2012) and plasmapheresis protocols, (Macgee et al 2007) state: