St John's Medical College Hospital unveils dialysis unit for Children

This project has been funded by Synchronoss Technologies India Pvt Ltd, a company that has supported children’s kidney care for a decade through CSR donations.

Kidney failure occurs in children most commonly due to congenital disorders of the kidneys and bladder.

Although considered a rare disease compared to vast numbers of adults with kidney disease, there are many children with kidney disease who go unrecognised and present only when their kidneys are permanently damaged.

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A study from India found that children made up 5.3% of all patients with CKD seen at a referral hospital. Given the large population of children in the Indian population, this is a large number of children needing care. These children require life-saving and sustaining dialysis until they can receive a kidney transplant.

Children on dialysis require specialized paediatric nephrology care due to unique challenges of small size, varying stages of development and need for nutrition to optimize growth. In addition, holistic care requires attention to the educational needs of the child for their well-being and future.

The department of paediatric nephrology at St John’s Medical College Hospital has been at the forefront of providing comprehensive care for children with kidney diseases for over two decades.

Established formally in 2013, the department offers a full spectrum of services, from outpatient nephrology care, critical care nephrology to dialysis and kidney transplants.

As the first centre in India to offer a DM programme in paediatric nephrology, St John’s has also trained nearly 70 paediatricians from India and abroad.

The department’s mission is to provide ethical, multidisciplinary, and affordable care for children, with a vision to be recognized as a global centre of excellence.

It comprises a combination of a dialysis unit, nutrition care during dialysis and parent education, this concept being new to paediatric dialysis management in Bengaluru.

This is the first OPD dialysis unit exclusively for children in Bengaluru. Based on assistance from the multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, dialysis technicians and social workers, this unit will cater to the special needs of children who need long-term dialysis, who come from home 3 times a week to spend 4-5 hours each time.

The inauguration of this new unit on September 24 at St John’s Medical College Hospital will certainly help assist needy children and their caregivers in this regard.

The OPD dialysis unit will provide dialysis at an affordable cost, in a child-friendly comforting environment, with age-appropriate educational opportunities, nutritional supplements and financial support to families.

This unit may serve as model for similar such units to be undertaken across Karnataka.

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