Although chronic renal disease is well known as one of the most frequent causes of growth retardation in children, details of the nature of the dependence of growth on kidney function have received little attention. It is obvious that when renal disease has become advanced, the complication of renal rickets provides an explanation for growth retardation, and it is on the marked dwarfism associated with this complication that pediatric texts and treatises on growth and development usually focus attention. The retardation of growth frequently seen in renal disease in the absence of rickets has not, to our knowledge, been specifically studied.
The growth failure of renal disease is usually classed as dwarfism associated with metabolic or organic disorder,* a category into which also fall growth failures resulting from heart disease, liver disease and such diseases of the intestine as celiac disease, pancreatic fibrosis, and megacolon. With the latter diseases, the