Executive Summary of ASN Kidney Health Guidance on Conservative Management in People with Kidney Failure

Conservative management is part of the standard of care for kidney failure management. Conservative management tailors kidney care to align with individual goals and values. Conservative management involves a multidisciplinary team to provide customized CKD care, symptom management, and navigation across care transitions.

Conservative management is a holistic, whole-person model of care for people with kidney failure. A proactive, ethical treatment pathway, conservative management can help align personal goals and plan of care for people who prioritize quality of life and symptom management over potential life-prolonging therapies. The Kidney Health Guidance (KHG) on Conservative Management in People with Kidney Failure provides evidence-based clinical guidance supporting best practices in three components of the conservative management care pathway: customized CKD care to align with a person's values and goals, symptom management, and navigation of care transitions. The guidance also emphasizes the importance of shared decision-making in providing goal-concordant kidney care, engaging care partners and collaborating across disciplines. In this Executive Summary, a practical companion to the KHG, we highlight the key points of the KHG to facilitate implementation of conservative management into clinical practice.

This article contains a podcast at https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3//www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/JASN/2026_03_18_KTS_March2026.mp3.