French translation and adaptation of the KDIGO nomenclature for kidney function and disease

A harmonized medical nomenclature that is accessible to the lay people is crucial to raising awareness of insidious health problems such as chronic kidney disease and facilitating communication between healthcare professionals. This article presents the proposals of a French-speaking working group for the translation and adaptation into French of the nomenclature for renal function and disease that resulted from a KDIGO consensus conference published in English in 2020. In particular, the working group recommends abandoning terms that used to correspond in French to “chronic renal failure”, “acute renal failure”, “end-stage renal failure”, “uremia”, “cadaveric donor” and “microalbuminuria”, in favor of French equivalents of “chronic renal disease”, “acute kidney injury”, “renal failure”, “uremic syndrome”, “deceased donor” and “albuminuria”. Arguments against the former and in favor of the latter are presented. Other equivalents of English terms from the KDIGO nomenclature are presented in a Table, and an Appendix presents equivalents proposed in German and Spanish by other authors. We hope that our proposals will be well received by healthcare professionals as well as by their patients and the public.