The ERA Registry Annual Report 2023: epidemiology of kidney replacement therapy in Europe, with a focus on age comparisons

Abstract

The European Renal Association (ERA) Registry collects data on patients with kidney failure receiving kidney replacement therapy (KRT). This paper presents a summary of the ERA Registry Annual Report 2023, and focuses specifically on comparisons by age. The complete ERA Registry Annual Report 2023 is available in the Supplementary information. For 2023, data were collected from 34 countries in Europe and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Using these data, incidence and prevalence of KRT, kidney transplantation rates, survival probabilities, and expected remaining lifetimes were calculated. In 2023, the ERA Registry covered 519 million people in the participating countries. The incidence of KRT was 151 per million population (pmp). Among incident patients, 29% were aged ≥75 years, 64% were male, and the most common primary renal disease (PRD) was diabetes mellitus (22%). Most patients (83%) started KRT with haemodialysis (HD), 11% started with peritoneal dialysis (PD), and 6% underwent pre-emptive kidney transplantation. On 31 December 2023, the prevalence of KRT was 1101 pmp. Among prevalent patients, 24% were aged ≥75 years, 62% were male, and the most common PRD was of miscellaneous origin (18%). Moreover, 56% of prevalent patients received HD, 5% received PD, and 39% were living with a functioning graft. In 2023, the kidney transplantation rate was 43 pmp, with 69% of kidneys coming from deceased donors. For patients starting KRT between 2014 and 2018, 5-year survival probability was 51%. The proportions of incident and prevalent patients aged ≥75 varied considerably across European countries. In addition, incident patients aged ≥75 were more often male, and had more often hypertension as PRD compared with younger patients. Only 1% of incident patients aged ≥75 received a pre-emptive kidney transplant, while among prevalent patients of the same age, 22% was living with a functioning graft.

Keywords: dialysis; graft survival; kidney failure; kidney transplantation; patient survival.