Canine chronic renal failure: epidemiologic observations

摘要

Recent clinical studies at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine have provided new insights into the nature of chronic renal failure in dogs. These studies and their comparison to current evidence in cats and humans with chronicrenal failure are the focus of this discussion. Clinical trials and observational studies of dogs with spontaneous chronic renal failure are still needed to better understand the nature of this disease. Despite the advent of hemodialysis and transplantation, human patients with end-stage renal disease have a relatively high mortality rate compared to the general population. In fact, in humans, a diagnosis of end stage kidney failure carries a prognosis between that of colon cancer and lung cancer. A healthy human between ages 45 and 54 can expect to live an additional 30 years. Life expectancy of such an individual with colon cancer would be 10 years, 5 years with end stage renal failure, and 3 years with lung cancer. Major contributors to premature death in humans with end-stage chronic renal failure include cardiac causes, infection, cerebrovascular disease, and malignancy. While some of these causes are directly a result of the therapy for end stage renal disease, many are conditions that were present before initiation of therapy.