Incidence of analgesic nephropathy in Berlin since 1983

Phenacetin was removed from the German market in 1986 and was replaced mainly in analgesic compounds by acetaminophen. Our objective was to examine the effect of this measure on the incidence of analgesic nephropathy in light of the changes in other end-stage renal diseases.

We therefore compared the proportion of renal diseases in all patients starting dialysis treatment during three 18-month periods: 4/1982-9/1983 (n=57); 1/1991-6/1992 (n=81); and 10/1995-3/1997 (n=76).

On the one hand, the proportion of end-stage analgesic nephropathy decreased significantly from 30% in 1981-1982 to 21% in 1991-1992 and 12% in 1995-1997 (P=0.01). On the other hand, type II diabetes increased significantly from 7% to 22% (P=0.01) and 29%, (P=0.001). Using the chi2 distribution test to analyze the frequencies of seven diseases at three different time intervals, however, showed that the changes in renal-disease proportions between 1982-1983, 1991-1992 and 1995-1997 were not significantly independent. There was a significant median age increase from 52 years (CI0.95 44-58) in 1982-1983 to 63 (CI0.95 55-67) in 1991-1992 and 63 (CI0.95 60-66) in 1995-1997 (P=0.003) for all patients starting dialysis but not for those with analgesic nephropathy [59 (55-71) vs 64 (53-67) and 61 (50-72); n.s.].

The decrease of end-stage analgesic nephropathy since 1983 may be partially due to the removal of phenacetin from the German market in 1986. However, considering the general increase in numbers of dialysis patients, their higher age and the increased incidence of type II diabetes, the decrease in analgesic nephropathy is not a statistically significant independent variable. Altered admittance policies for dialysis treatment have yielded a new pattern of renal-disease proportion which interferes with changes in the incidence of analgesic nephropathy.