Kidney dialysis

Children’s Hospital Boston is home to the world’s most extensive research enterprise at a pediatric hospital. In our End Stage Renal Disease Program—which includes the dialysis unit and our Kidney Transplant Program—our treatment is informed by our research.

We also have a great number of partnerships with top research, biotech and health care organizations and we work together to improve kids’ health.

One of these is the Transplant Research Center (TRC), a partnership with Brigham and Woman's Hospital that provides a rich environment for collaboration of scientists and physicians from both institutions in the areas of transplantation and immunology.

If your child has end-stage renal disease, dialysis can filter his blood, but not take over the other roles of the kidney, such as regulating the amounts of some important vitamins and minerals released into the bloodstream and controlling blood pressure. For that, your child needs to take medication and follow a special diet. Our researchers are currently involved in several clinical trials to assess the safety and efficacy of medications aimed at fulfilling this pharmaceutical component of treating end-stage renal disease.

We’re committed to developing better anti-rejection medication with the goal of more successful transplants and fewer side effects.

We currently participate in more NIH-sponsored pediatric kidney transplant research studies than any other program in the nation.