Dialysis registries in the world: Korean Dialysis Registry

The Korean Society of Nephrology (KSN) end-stage renal disease (ESRD) registry was established in 1985 in which all KSN members are participating voluntarily: the ‘Insan Prof. Byung-Suk Min Memorial ESRD Patient Registry’. The ESRD registry committee of KSN has collected the data through the internet online program that was opened in 2001 and revised in 2013. The registry internet program has collected data throughout the years, which includes dialysis center information, vascular access, dialysis doses, and laboratory data with dialysis adequacy and rehabilitation status. In Korea, the number of dialysis patients has been rapidly growing (~8–9% per year) in recent years, especially elderly patients. The total number of patients with renal replacement therapy (RRT) was 75,042 at the end of 2013. The prevalence of RRT was 1446.4 patients per million population. The proportion of RRT for hemodialysis (HD) is 69.8%, for peritoneal dialysis (PD) is 10.0%, and for renal transplant is 20.2%. In about half (48%) of new dialysis patients, the underlying disease was diabetic nephropathy in 2013. Mean urea reduction ratio in HD was 68.1% in male patients and 74.2% in female patients. Survey on rehabilitation status of dialysis patients showed that 22% of HD patients have full-time job and 8% have part-time job. About 29% of PD patients have full-time job and 17% have part-time job.