Click above to watch a video of Dr Fergus Caskey, the Trial Chief Investigator, discusing why the Prepare for Kidney Care Trial is needed.

The Prepare for Kidney Care study will help patients living with advanced kidney disease to make better plans for what they will do if their kidney function gets worse.

Treatment options include

• A kidney transplant
• Renal dialysis
  • using a ‘kidney machine’ to remove toxins that build up in the body, or
• Responsive management
  • where social, psychological and physical needs are dealt with, but kidney function is not artificially replaced.

A kidney transplant is considered the best treatment for many people with kidney failure, but is not medically suitable for everyone. Renal dialysis and responsive management are excellent treatments used by many thousands of patients in the UK. Kidney specialists agree that both approaches are effective and safe. Some kidney teams tend to prepare older people and those with multiple health problems for responsive management. Others tend to prepare patients for renal dialysis. It is different around the country, because doctors do not know if one is ultimately better for patients, or whether they are both the same. Kidney specialists would like to compare quality of life and survival for the two approaches, so future patients can make better-informed decisions.

The Prepare for Kidney Care study will provide the first high-quality evidence comparing the benefits of preparing for renal dialysis vs. preparing for responsive management for these people. It will tell us about their quality of life and how long they survive. It will reveal the impact treatments have on patients, their families and their carers. The results will be used in the future to inform patients, relatives and clinical teams when making decisions about whether to prepare for renal dialysis or for responsive management.