End-stage Renal Disease in India and Pakistan: Incidence, Causes, and Management

Chronic renal failure is a devastating medical, social, and economic problem for patients and their families in India and Pakistan. Reliable data on the true incidence and prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in India and Pakistan are lacking because no national registries exist. Among reported cases, chronic glomerulonephritis is the most common cause, accounting for more than one third of patients, while diabetic nephropathy accounts for approximately 20% of all patients in India. Delayed diagnosis and failure to institute measures to slow the progression of renal failure have resulted in a predominantly young ESRD population, with a median age of 44 years. Because of financial constraints, less than one third of all patients referred to a tertiary care center receive any kind of renal replacement therapy. Most hemodialysis patients who stop treatment and die do so because of cost constraints within the first three months, and approximately 5% of patients are started on ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Renal transplantation is the cheapest option, but < 10% of all patients with ESRD have a transplant. Cyclosporine, azathioprine, and prednisolone continue to be the backbone of post-transplant immunosuppression, but cyclosporine is stopped in a significant proportion of patients at one year post-transplant to cut down costs. Living related donor transplants constitute 70% of all transplants; two thirds of the donors are females, while more than three fourths of all recipients are males. Spouses account for 20% of donors from within families. Almost 30% of transplanted kidneys are donated by living unrelated donors, while cadaver donors account for only 2%. More resources must be mobilized to care for these patients; early detection of renal disease must be facilitated, and measures to delay ESRD must be implemented.