Successful pregnancy in a patient with polycystic kidney disease and advanced renal failure without prophylactic dialysis

Pregnancies in women suffering from advanced chronic renal failure are frequently associated with deterioration of maternal renal function, premature births and low birth weights. Prophylactic dialysis is sometimes instituted since this intervention ameliorates the uremic milieu and improves maternal status and fetal uterine environment. This report describes a successful pregnancy and delivery in a hypertensive woman with advanced chronic renal failure due to polycystic kidney disease without accelerating the natural deterioration of renal function and without instituting prophylactic dialysis. The infant was delivered at full term with a normal birth weight. Thirty months after delivery, growth and development of the child were normal and the rate of deterioration of maternal renal function, assessed by 1/creatinine, was unaffected by pregnancy. Conservative management and effective control of blood pressure may be sufficient to achieve successful pregnancy outcome when women with advanced chronic renal failure become pregnant.