1996 Korean Renal Registry Report

This report was based on data from the ESRD (End-Stage Renal Disease) Registry Committee of the Korean Society of Nephrology and accounts for 60% of all patients on renal replacement therapy (RRT) in Korea, The data are from 31 December 1996. There were 208 centres providing dialysis (4.76 centres per million population [p.m.p.]) and 36 renal transplant centres. There were 18161 (391.1 p.m.p.) patients on RRT of which 53% were on haemodialysis (HD), 16.4% on peritoneal dialysis (PD) and 30.6% with functioning renal transplants (TX). There was a 14% increase in the number of patients over the previous year (HD 12.3%, PD 8.5%, TX 20.4%). The incidence of treated ESRD was 5058 (108.9 p.m.p.). The mean age of existing patients was 48.3 years (HD, 48.4; PD, 50.2; KT, 37.5) and sex ratio was M:F 57:43 (HD, 55:45; PD, 54:46; KT, 67:33). The primary renal diseases were glomerulonephritis (21.6%), diabetic nephropathy (30.8%), hypertension (18.3%) and others (34.2%). Sixty-five per cent of patients on HD and 35% on PD were treated with erythropoietin. Eleven per cent of patients on RRT (HD 11.4%, PD 8%) were serologically positive for hepatitis B infection and another 10% (HD 10.3%, PD 3.3%) were positive for hepatitis C infection. The rate of peritonitis was 0.78 episodes per patient year. There were 941 renal transplants in 1996 and the annual transplantation rate was 20.3 p.m.p. Eighty-eight per cent of transplants were from live donors (65.5% living-related and 34.5% living-unrelated) and the other 12% were from cadaveric donors. The causes of death were cardiac (31.6%), vascular (24.5%), infection (19.4%), liver disease (3.1%), social (8.2%), miscellaneous (6.1%) and uncertain (7.1%). The annual mortality rate of RRT patients was 8.9% according to the report from Korean National Statistical Office.