Every year the Ira Greifer Children’s Kidney Center at The Children’s Hospital at
Montefiore (CHAM) provides advanced nephrologic care to more than 4,000 children
with renal disorders – including a significant number of patients with rheumatologic disease.
Kidney involvement is common with systemic inflammation:
50 percent of older children with Henoch-
Schonlein purpura (HSP) and two-thirds of pediatric
patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
experience at least mild hematuria and proteinuria,
according to Frederick Kaskel, MD, director, Children’s
Kidney Center and chief, Pediatric Nephrology, CHAM.
Emergency Nephrologic Intervention Saves Lives
In SLE patients, “it’s not only the blood and protein that
worry us,” says Dr. Kaskel, but “the condition’s narrow
window” that can move from non-event to near-death
“in hours,” he notes. While HSP generally runs a benign
course, “I’ve seen patients lose kidneys in an acute
episode,” says Dr. Kaskel, “or be left with diminished
function and high blood pressure” that require dialysis
and renal transplant.
New York’s Only Certified Pediatric Dialysis Center
The Children’s Kidney Center takes a unique approach
to pediatric rheumatologic and renal care that provides
superb nephrologic specialty treatment and an array of
related adjuvant and psychosocial services in a childfriendly
environment.
The only certified pediatric dialysis program in
New York State, the Center has cutting-edge facilities
that offer every available form of at-home and in-patient
peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis – including continuous
venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH) for improved
solute clearance.
Outstanding Transplant Track Record
The Center’s sub-specialized nephrologic surgeons are
nationally recognized for their expertise: 98 percent of
all transplants survive for 10 years or more – the national
average is 88 percent. CHAM surgeons have performed
more than 1,000 grafts and transplanted kidneys in
patients as young as age 2.
Center’s Founders Pioneered Pediatric Nephroloy
At CHAM, nephrologic excellence is a four-decade
tradition. Drs. Henry Barnett, Chester Edelmann and
Ira Greifer of Albert Einstein College of Medicine
helped “define the field of pediatric nephrology” in
the 1960s, notes Dr. Kaskel. The three physicians
were among the primary framers of the International
Pediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA) and soon
after founded the Children’s Kidney Center, named in
honor of Dr. Greifer.
CHAM’s Children’s Kidney Center is First
As one of the first comprehensive pediatric renal programs
in the world, the Children’s Kidney Center is responsible
for a long line of firsts. The Center’s surgeons performed
New York’s first pediatric renal transplant in 1972,
Montefiore physician-scientists led the United States’
first multicenter research studies on pediatric nephrotic
syndrome – the most common form of chronic childhood
kidney disease – and the Center opened the country’s first
summer camp for pediatric dialysis patients in 1974.
Research That Moves the Field Forward
Clinical expertise and scientific innovation continues
today at CHAM. In addition to directing the Center’s
clinical program, Dr. Kaskel leads nephrologic research
and is the principal investigator of a National Institutes
of Health (NIH)-sponsored multicenter clinical study
of focal segmental glomerularsclerosis.
In collaboration with scientists at Johns Hopkins
Children’s Center, Dr. Kaskel serves as co-investigator on
the largest investigation of pediatric nephrologic disease
ever conducted in the U.S., a 55-center study that assesses
patients’ kidney dysfunction over a period of years.
Metro Area’s Foremost Nephrologic Program
The Children’s Kidney Center is the largest and most
comprehensive pediatric nephrologic program in the
metro area, with six sub-specialists in pediatric nephrology,
three transplant surgeons, two pediatric urologists,
two dedicated renal pathologists, and experts in child
psychiatry, pediatric transplant nursing, nutrition, renal
social work and child life issues.
“We have a very large interactive team,” acknowledges
Dr. Kaskel. “For family-centered care, the importance
of a team can’t be stressed enough.”
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