Recovery of kidney function after dialysis initiation in children and adults in the US: A retrospective study of United States Renal Data System data

Little is known about factors associated with recovery of kidney function-and return to dialysis independence-or temporal trends in recovery after starting outpatient dialysis in the United States. Understanding the characteristics of individuals who may have the potential to recover kidney function may promote better recognition of such events. The goal of this study was to determine factors associated with recovery of kidney function in children compared with adults starting dialysis in the US. We determined factors associated with recovery of kidney function-defined as survival and discontinuation of dialysis for ≥90-day period-in children versus adults who started maintenance dialysis between 1996 and 2015 according to the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) followed through 2016 in a retrospective cohort study. We also examined temporal trends in recovery rates over the last 2 decades in this cohort. Among 1,968,253 individuals included for study, the mean age was 62.6 ± 15.8 years, and 44% were female. Overall, 4% of adults (83,302/1,953,881) and 4% of children (547/14,372) starting dialysis in the outpatient setting recovered kidney function within 1 year. Among those who recovered, the median time to recovery was 73 days (interquartile range [IQR] 43-131) in adults and 100 days (IQR 56-189) in children. Accounting for the competing risk of death, children were less likely to recover kidney function compared with adults (sub-hazard ratio [sub-HR] 0.81; 95% CI 0.74-0.89, p-value