After leveling off for a few years, the rate of new cases of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has begun to climb again in the United States.
The US Renal Data System 2008 Annual Data Report: Atlas of Chronic Kidney Disease and End-State Renal Disease (available online at http://www.usrds.org) reported 110 851 new cases of ESRD in 2006, which translates to an incidence rate of 360 new cases per 1 million people, a 3.4% increase from 2005. In 2006, more than 500 000 individuals in the United States had ESRD, with about 70% on dialysis and more than 18 000 receiving a kidney transplant.