Pediatric Challenges in Robot-Assisted Kidney Transplantation.

Kidney transplantation is universally recognized as the gold standard treatment in patients with End-stage Kidney Disease (ESKD, or according to the latest nomenclature, CKD stage 5). Robot-assisted kidney transplantation (RAKT) is gradually becoming preferred technique in adults, even if applied in very few centra, with potentially improved clinical outcomes compared with open kidney transplantation. To date, only very few RAKT procedures in children have been described.

Countermeasures against COVID-19: how to navigate medical practice through a nascent, evolving evidence base - a European multicentre mixed methods study.

Objectives: In a previously published Delphi exercise the European Pediatric Dialysis Working Group (EPDWG) reported widely variable counteractive responses to COVID-19 during the first week of statutory public curfews in 12 European countries with case loads of 4-680 infected patients per million. To better understand these wide variations, we assessed different factors affecting countermeasure implementation rates and applied the capability, opportunity, motivation model of behaviour to describe their determinants.

Design: We undertook this international mixed methods study of increased depth and breadth to obtain more complete data and to better understand the resulting complex evidence.

Assessment of the Most Impactful Combination of Factors Associated with Nocturia and to Define Nocturnal Polyuria by Multivariate Modelling.

Background: Nocturia is common and associated with multiple disease states. Many potential mechanisms have been proposed for nocturia, which also remains challenging to manage.

Purpose: To use multivariate analysis to determine which combinations of factors can accurately discriminate clinically significant nocturia in patients to facilitate clinical management and treatment decisions.

Neutral pH and low-glucose degradation product dialysis fluids induce major early alterations of the peritoneal membrane in children on peritoneal dialysis.

The effect of peritoneal dialysates with low-glucose degradation products on peritoneal membrane morphology is largely unknown, with functional relevancy predominantly derived from experimental studies. To investigate this, we performed automated quantitative histomorphometry and molecular analyses on 256 standardized peritoneal and 172 omental specimens from 56 children with normal renal function, 90 children with end-stage kidney disease at time of catheter insertion, and 82 children undergoing peritoneal dialysis using dialysates with low-glucose degradation products. Follow-up biopsies were obtained from 24 children after a median peritoneal dialysis of 13 months.

Epidemiology and outcome of acute kidney injury in children, a single center study.

Background: Information on the epidemiology of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) in children is scarce. We performed a single center retrospective cohort study to analyze the incidence of AKI, the male/female ratio, the underlying etiology, and age at presentation. We also aimed to assess outcome measured by mortality, duration of PICU stay, and development of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).

Building on evidence to improve patient care.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is gaining importance in the current paediatric healthcare landscape. Improvement of paediatric health status is its major aim. However, for EBM to be successful, all stakeholders involved should understand what EBM really is, why and how EBM should or should not be practiced, and have the necessary skills to distinguish methodologically sound papers from biased opinion papers, and understand how and why guidelines are different from systematic reviews.

Complete factor I deficiency due to dysfunctional factor I with recurrent aseptic meningo-encephalitis.

Purpose: Complement regulators control the activated complement system. Defects in this homeostasis can result in tissue damage and autoimmune diseases with a heterogeneity in clinical presentation. Complement factor I (FI), a serine protease, is an important regulator of alternative pathway activation.

Guideline for the investigation and initial therapy of diarrhea-negative hemolytic uremic syndrome.

This guideline for the investigation and initial treatment of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is intended to offer an approach based on opinion, as evidence is lacking. It builds on the current ability to identify the etiology of specific diagnostic sub-groups of HUS. HUS in children is mostly due to infection, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), Shigella dysenteriae type 1 in some geographic regions, and invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae.