Medication use during hemodialysis in children with end-stage renal disease in a Mexican pediatric hospital.

Chronic renal failure requiring dialysis or transplantation is known as end-stage renal disease. Several drugs are used to treating the symptoms, co-morbid conditions and treatment side effects of end-stage renal disease. We investigated drug treatment during the period of hemodialysis in children with end-stage renal disease in the Hospital del Niño DIF, Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico. Data were collected from hospital records. The data included demographic, clinical data and those on drug usage. A total of 13 patients were included. The average age of patients was 14.2 +/- 2.1 years. Eighteen different medications were administered; the mean number of drugs during the period of hemodialysis was 1.3 +/- 0.6 (range 1-4). Two-hundred sixteen doses of medication were administered in 130 hemodialysis sessions. The drugs most used were erythropoietin (42.7 %), followed by dextrose solution (18.9 %), calcium gluconate (10.4 %), iron dextran (9.1%) and nifedipine (5.5 %). Medications may be used to help control some of the issues associated with kidney failure or hemodialysis. Our study showed that few drugs are administered to children with ESRD during their period of hemodialysis.