Preventive Nephrology - Proposed Options in Childhood Nephropathy

Abstract

Three children with renal disorders managed at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital are reported as case studies to underscore the need for preventive nephrology . The first case illustrates the inevitability of rapidly progressive renal failure when remedial management desired in the early stages of the nephropathy is not offered or available. Subsequent efforts to help the child were inadequate, too late and foreclosed by extreme poverty of the family. The second case typifies the acute on chronic nephropathy complicated by hypertension and again, extreme poverty of the family. The prognoses in such cases are uniformly bad. The third case represents an important group with relapsing type of nephrotic syndrome, which is amenable to remedial management, and a fair chance of a good span of life. A long term follow-up and attention to possible trigger factors that might lead to relapse is called for. In the three cases, it was posited that primary, secondary or tertiary preventive strategies would have been useful or was useful.

Nigerian Journal of Paediatrics 2001; 28:46. pp. 46-49