Five things to know about our Pediatric Kidney Center
Kidneys play an important role in our health: Their primary job is to filter toxic waste from our bloodstream. Children’s kidneys can stop functioning for a variety of reasons: a birth defect, blood loss or heart disease, an injury, and many other illnesses can all affect kidney function. When a child’s kidneys can’t work on their own, dialysis treatment does their work, removing waste, toxins, and excess fluid from the body.
The Pediatric Kidney Center at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital offers dialysis for children of all ages, both in our hospital and at home. Because dialysis takes time, and must be done on a regular basis, our kidney center becomes a home away from home for children experiencing kidney failure. Families coming into our hospital for dialysis often spend upwards of 12 hours a week with our team, who support their social and emotional well-being in addition to their kidney health.
We asked Anne Kouri, MD, MS, a pediatric kidney specialist, medical director of the Pediatric Kidney Center and assistant professor at University of Minnesota Medical School, what you should know about the center and our care for children with kidney failure.
We offer dialysis at home and in our hospital.
Our Pediatric Kidney Center offers two types of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Both support kidneys by filtering waste and excess fluid, but they provide filtration in different ways.
Hemodialysis uses an external machine to get rid of waste and build-up in the bloodstream, by pumping blood through a filtration device and then returning it to the body. We typically perform hemodialysis at our hospital, with six private rooms for children to come in and receive treatment. Patients spend four hours at a time on the machine, and typically come in three to four days a week for treatment.
The other treatment we offer is called peritoneal dialysis. For this treatment, children have a catheter placed in their abdomen that is used to flush out waste and replace it with clean fluids. After the catheter is placed, peritoneal dialysis can be done either in our hospital or most often on a small machine at home. Children receive peritoneal dialysis for 10 to 12 hours at a time, often overnight.
“We serve patients who live hours away from our hospital, in western Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, and the Dakotas,” said Kouri. “They still come in to meet with our specialists on a regular basis, but we’re able to do a lot of support and monitoring remotely.”
We offer dialysis for children with acute and chronic kidney conditions.
A child’s kidney may stop functioning because of an acute cause, for example, injury or illness that suddenly decreases blood flow to the kidneys. When a child has acute kidney failure, dialysis may be able to temporarily support the kidneys as they recover on their own. In other cases, kidney function declines over time due to chronic kidney disease, meaning the kidneys won’t be able to heal on their own and will need treatment on an ongoing basis.
“The majority of our patients have chronic kidney disease,” said Kouri. “For these children, dialysis is a bridge to kidney transplant, which varies significantly in terms of how long kids have to wait for a matching donor organ.”
We’re a second home – and a “medical home” – for children on dialysis.
Children coming to our hospital for hemodialysis spend upwards of 12 hours a week in our Pediatric Kidney Center, which often functions as a home away from home and a “medical home” for them and their families. Our pediatric dialysis team is able to help families in coordinating other needed specialty care at our children’s hospital.
“We work with other specialists to schedule visits when children are already coming in to see us for dialysis,” said Kouri. “We also coordinate mental health services for our patients, to support them through the stress and emotional toll of a chronic illness.”
We support the whole child, from nutrition to play.
Chloe Feld, a certified child life specialist, recently joined our Pediatric Kidney Center to provide social, emotional, and developmental support for our patients alongside our social work team. Feld spends time with patients and their families during treatment, getting to know them and using those connections to improve and personalize care.
“The majority of my day looks like a lot of play,” said Feld, who is part of our hospital’s Child and Family Life Services team. “On any given day, you can find me building rapport with kids and their families, facilitating therapeutic activities, supporting dressing changes, and helping patients to learn about dialysis.”
Feld joined our team through a generous gift from Voyage Wealth Architects, a Private Client Group member firm with Northwestern Mutual.
“Chloe has been a great addition to our team, getting to know our patients and engaging with them in a developmentally appropriate way,” said Kouri. “She learns about children’s interests and creates projects around those interests. She also gets to know their families and hears what questions they have about treatment, which helps inform our care.”
Our Pediatric Kidney Center is also home to a dietitian who helps families adjust their child’s diet to support kidney function. In the past, our program has received funding to provide grocery support for families facing food insecurity, says Kouri, adding that nearly half of pediatric dialysis patients nationwide are food insecure.
You can make a difference for our patients. Donate here to support programming for children and their families at our Pediatric Kidney Center.
