2016 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 161-165
In Japan, children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome usually have to be hospitalized for more than four weeks for initial treatment. However, there are no reports on the appropriate length of hospitalization. We retrospectively examined the medical records of 37 children with an initial episode of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome were discharged in less than four weeks. We analyzed the side effect of steroid, including hypertension and ocular hypertension, and body weight change. The median age was four years (range, 1–14 years), median days until remission was seven days (range, 4–15 days) and median length of stay was 16 days (range, 10–25 days). Only one patient needed antihypertensive agent for high blood pressure during hospitalization. 11 patients showed ocular hypertension and 3 of them showed after discharge, and continued treatment at the outpatient department. None of the patients was re-hospitalized because of complications. After 8 weeks of treatment, their body weight gained about 10 percent than the premorbid. We found that the length of initial treatment of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome can be less than four weeks if the patient can manage medicine, diet and infection and be frequently followed up at the outpatient department.
