Overview of pediatric renal replacement therapy in acute renal failure

The disease spectrum leading to pediatric renal replacement therapy (RRT) provision has broadened over the last decade. In the 1980s, intrinsic renal disease and burns constituted the most common pediatric acute renal failure etiologies. More recent data demonstrate that pediatric acute renal failure (ARF) most often results from complications of other systemic diseases, resulting from advancements in congenital heart surgery, neonatal care, and bone marrow and solid organ transplantation. In addition, RRT modality preferences to treat critically ill children have shifted from peritoneal dialysis to continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) as a result of improvements in CRRT technologies. Currently, multicenter prospective outcome studies for critically ill children with ARF are sorely lacking. The aims of this article are to review the pediatric specific causes necessitating renal replacement therapy provision, with an emphasis on emerging practice patterns with respect to modality and the timing of treatment, and to focus upon the application of the different renal replacement therapy modalities and assessment of the outcome of children with ARF who receive renal replacement therapy.