Childhood kidney disease is curable, so get early treatment
The message is loud and clear – childhood kidney disease, if diagnosed early and treated properly, is curable.
This is what Professor in Paediatric Nephrology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Prof. Randula Ranawaka highlights as World Kidney Day with the global theme of ‘Kidney Health for All – Advancing equitable access to care and optimal medication practice’ is celebrated next Thursday.
While assuring that Sri Lanka has facilities on par with developed countries to treat childhood kidney disease, this Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist who is also attached to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children, Colombo, ticks off such facilities.
These facilities include haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis and renal (kidney) transplant for end-stage kidney disease.
In haemodialysis, the child’s blood is sent through tubes from his/her body into a dialysis machine where it gets filtred through a ‘dialyzer’ and is sent back into the body after the removal of waste and extra fluid.
In peritoneal dialysis, a catheter sends the cleaning fluid, dialysate, into the child’s abdomen, with the tissues covering most of the organs in the abdomen (the peritoneum) acting as a filtre. Explaining that these facilities are available at the LRH and a few other state hospitals across the country, Prof. Ranawaka urges that parents should seek treatment as early as possible for their children.
In Sri Lanka, with expectant mothers undergoing scanning early into their pregnancy, it is conducive to finding congenital abnormalities in the foetus early, according to him. The necessity once the baby is born is to follow-up, repeat such imaging and treat such a condition.
He says that parents should also watch out for Nephrotic Syndrome, an early indication of which would be oedema (generalized swelling of the whole body) and frothy urine (a sign of protein in the urine).
“Don’t delay seeing a doctor by following so-called other solutions, but bring the child to hospital, as Nephrotic
Syndrome is easily treatable with a good prognosis,” he says.
A few more danger signals of childhood kidney disease are red colour urine and frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Prof. Ranawaka cautions against ignoring even once if a child passes red colour urine as it could be due to an underlying disease affecting the kidneys. UTIs too need to be checked out to ascertain why they are occurring.
Referring to the importance of nourishment, he underscores that both obesity and malnourishment can impact on a child’s kidneys. This is while CKD presents with birth deformation, growth retardation, anaemia, loss of appetite and loss of weight. Early diagnosis, referral and treatment will help the child to have a good quality of life and no disruption in his/her education. Many people do not know that children could be recipients of both live kidney donation and cadaveric donation programmes.
Prof. Ranawaka urges the setting up of a Registry of those suffering from CKD, while requesting adequate dialyzer units and Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) circuits to maintain facilities.