Renal Diabetes Clinic

Clinical Lead:  Dr J Tapson, Consultant Nephrologist

This clinic is for patients with diabetes who have developed kidney disease.

Diabetes clinics screen all patients for signs of kidney disease which eventually develops in about one third of people with diabetes.  The earliest signs are increased excretion of a protein called albumin in the urine, generally followed by high blood pressure. Kidney function may deteriorate over several years resulting in end stage kidney failure. Treatment may include a drug called an ACE inhibitor which together with good control of diabetes and blood pressure can slow the loss of kidney function.

When kidney function has fallen to around 40 percent of normal, a nephrologist can make a timely treatment plan for the event of end stage kidney failure.  Complications arising from kidney disease can also be addressed.

Treatment options for diabetic kidney disease include haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplantation.  Sometimes a pancreas transplant can be performed alongside a kidney transplant.

Islet cell transplantation is an experimental treatment for type 1 diabetes and at present is not a treatment option in the Northern Region.

This clinic will be combined with the General Nephrology clinic when our services relocate in May 2008.