[Hemolytic uremic syndrome: the experience of a pediatric center]

Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is one of the main causes of acute renal failure in the Chilean pediatric population.

To report the features of patients with HUS, admitted to the pediatric ward of a clinical hospital.

Retrospective review of medical records of patients admitted with the diagnosis of HUS between 1995 and 2002.

During the period, 58 patients were admitted with the diagnosis of HUS but only 43 (age range 1 month to 6 years, 22 females) had complete medical records for review. Ninety five percent presented with prodromic diarrhea, mainly dysenteric. Antibiotics were administered to 70%, in the previous days. Acute renal replacement, mainly peritoneal dialysis, was required in 40%. The clinical signs and laboratory parameters that correlated better with the indication for dialysis were anuria, hypertension, initial and permanently high serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen. Four patients with blood urea nitrogen over 100 mg/dl but without anuria or hyperkalemia, were treated conservatively, and experienced an uneventful course (permissive azotemia). Hospital stay was almost 3 times greater in dialyzed than in non dialyzed children. No deaths related to HUS were reported in the study period. In an average follow up of 54 months, 11.6% of the patients developed chronic renal failure of diverse magnitude.

Despite the fact that our study group behaved clinically similar to published HUS patients in other series, no mortality was observed in a retrospective analysis of patients with this disease.