Can the bowel substitute for the kidney in advanced renal failure?

Figures & data

Figure 1.  Selected national rates of incidence and prevalence of ESRD therapy as reported in the 2008 report of the United States Renal Data System¹⁰, the United States and Japan have the highest rates while Bangladesh illustrates the almost total absence of uremia therapy

Figure 2.  The United States Renal Data System 2008 report¹⁰ illustrates how the annual cost of renal replacement therapy is linked to the therapeutic modality chosen, overall expenses in the first transplant year amounted to over $100,000 while each year of hemodialysis had Medicare reimbursement of $71,889; the range of overall application of ESRD therapy is sharply different in affluent versus developing countries as shown in Figure 3

Figure 3.  Linkage between annual per person income and incident ESRD treatment rate is depicted for several nations compared with the United States¹⁰, broadly applying any therapy requiring thousands of dollars per year is beyond the budget of both nations with a population of over one billion (China, India) and limited industrialization (Congo, Haiti)