Nephrology & Dialysis Clinical Guidelines
Nephrology and dialysis guideline index: the governing KDIGO and KDOQI guidelines on CKD, AKI, glomerular disease, anemia, and dialysis, with source links.
Nephrology & Dialysis
The nephrology and dialysis hub. Indexes the governing KDIGO and KDOQI guidelines on CKD, AKI, glomerular disease, anemia, CKD-MBD, and dialysis, with sources.
Nephrology is the medical specialty concerned with the kidney: the evaluation and management of chronic kidney disease across its stages, acute kidney injury and its recovery, glomerular and tubulointerstitial diseases, inherited kidney disease, the systemic consequences of reduced kidney function (hypertension, anemia, mineral and bone disorder, electrolyte and acid-base disturbance), and kidney replacement therapy by hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or transplantation. Dialysis practice adds its own body of work on vascular access, dialysis prescription and adequacy, volume management, and nutrition. The discipline overlaps heavily with critical care, cardiology, and hospital medicine, because kidney function shapes drug dosing, fluid management, and cardiovascular risk in nearly every inpatient.
This section is new. It currently indexes the governing professional-society guidelines for nephrology and dialysis, each with a source link to the publisher, the journal landing page, or PubMed. Multi-part syntheses in the site’s usual format, integrating several societies’ recommendations into one reference with DOI-linked citations and sequential part pages, are being added and will be linked from this page as they publish.
Governing guidelines
| Guideline | Publisher | Edition | Scope | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease | KDIGO | 2024 (replaces 2012) | Evaluation of CKD, risk assessment, delaying progression and managing complications, medication management and drug stewardship, and models of care, in adults and children not receiving dialysis or transplant | KDIGO |
| KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline for Acute Kidney Injury | KDIGO | 2012; a 2026 AKI/AKD revision is in public review | Definition and staging of AKI, prevention and treatment, contrast-associated AKI, and dialysis interventions for AKI | KDIGO |
| KDIGO 2021 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Glomerular Diseases | KDIGO | 2021 (replaces 2012) | General principles of glomerular disease management, then IgA nephropathy and IgA vasculitis, membranous nephropathy, nephrotic syndrome in children, minimal change disease, FSGS, infection-related GN, ANCA vasculitis, lupus nephritis, anti-GBM disease, and complement-mediated disease | KDIGO |
| KDIGO 2021 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Blood Pressure in Chronic Kidney Disease | KDIGO | 2021 (replaces 2012) | Blood pressure measurement, targets, lifestyle interventions, and antihypertensive therapy in CKD not on dialysis, including kidney transplant recipients and children | KDIGO |
| KDIGO 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline for Diabetes Management in Chronic Kidney Disease | KDIGO | 2022 (focused update of 2020) | Comprehensive care, glycemic monitoring and targets, lifestyle interventions, glucose-lowering therapies in type 2 diabetes with CKD, and approaches to management | Kidney International |
| KDIGO 2026 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Anemia in Chronic Kidney Disease | KDIGO | 2026 (replaces 2012) | Diagnosis and evaluation of anemia in CKD, iron therapy, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, HIF-prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors and other agents, and red blood cell transfusion, in adults and children with or without kidney replacement therapy | Kidney International |
| KDIGO 2017 Clinical Practice Guideline Update for the Diagnosis, Evaluation, Prevention, and Treatment of CKD-MBD | KDIGO | 2017 (selective update of 2009) | Mineral and bone disorder in adults and children with CKD, on chronic dialysis, or with a kidney transplant | Kidney International Supplements |
| KDIGO 2025 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation, Management, and Treatment of ADPKD | KDIGO | 2025 (first edition) | Nomenclature, diagnosis, prognosis, kidney and extrarenal manifestations, therapies to slow progression, and pregnancy and reproductive issues in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease | KDIGO |
| KDIGO 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Prevention, Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of Hepatitis C in Chronic Kidney Disease | KDIGO | 2022 (focused update of 2018) | Hepatitis C in CKD, including patients on dialysis and kidney transplant candidates and recipients | KDIGO |
| KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Vascular Access | National Kidney Foundation KDOQI | 2019 update (published 2020) | The ESKD Life-Plan, choice of hemodialysis vascular access, arteriovenous fistula and graft and central venous catheter targets, and management of access complications | AJKD |
| KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Nutrition in CKD | National Kidney Foundation KDOQI with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics | 2020 update | Nutritional assessment, medical nutrition therapy, dietary protein and energy intake, supplementation, micronutrients, and electrolytes across CKD stages 1 to 5, dialysis, and transplant | AJKD |
| KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Hemodialysis Adequacy | National Kidney Foundation KDOQI | 2015 update | Timing of hemodialysis initiation, frequency and duration, ultrafiltration rate, volume and blood pressure control, and high-frequency hemodialysis | National Kidney Foundation |
How this section is used
For protocol development, start from the source list above. Each row links to the publisher’s page or the journal of record, where the full recommendation text, grading, and supplementary evidence tables are available. Protocols on dialysis access, anemia management, or CKD-MBD monitoring should cite the edition named in the table, and the KDOQI commentaries on KDIGO guidelines are the place to look for United States practice context.
For point-of-care questions, Lumen retrieves from this corpus and cites the page it drew from, so an answer about a KDIGO recommendation can be traced back to the guideline that made it. Departments that run Lumen as a shared workspace can read how a nephrology and dialysis service runs these guidelines as one shared Lumen workspace.
Related departments
- Vascular Access overlaps on hemodialysis catheters, arteriovenous access, vein preservation in patients with or approaching CKD, and catheter-related infection and thrombosis.
- Critical Care overlaps on acute kidney injury, renal replacement therapy in the ICU, and fluid and electrolyte management; the ICU library already carries an Acute Kidney Injury & RRT series.
- Emergency Medicine overlaps on hyperkalemia, acute kidney injury at presentation, and emergent dialysis access.
- Infection Prevention overlaps on hemodialysis catheter-related bloodstream infection and hepatitis screening in dialysis units.
- Oncology overlaps on tumor lysis, nephrotoxic chemotherapy, and onconephrology.
- Cardiology overlaps on blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in CKD, and heart failure with kidney dysfunction.
- Perioperative & Anesthesia overlaps on perioperative kidney risk and dialysis-dependent surgical patients.
- Hospital Medicine overlaps on inpatient AKI, electrolyte disorders, and CKD medication management.
- Clinical Pharmacy overlaps on renal drug dosing and nephrotoxin stewardship.
Frequently asked questions
What does the nephrology and dialysis section of The Clinical Database cover?
The section indexes the professional-society guidelines that govern the evaluation and management of chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury and acute kidney disease, glomerular diseases, blood pressure and diabetes in CKD, anemia, mineral and bone disorder, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, hepatitis C in CKD, hemodialysis vascular access, nutrition in CKD, and hemodialysis adequacy. Each entry links to the publisher’s page, the journal landing page, or PubMed.
Which organizations publish the guidelines indexed here?
Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) publishes the international guidelines on CKD, AKI, glomerular diseases, blood pressure, diabetes, anemia, CKD-MBD, ADPKD, and hepatitis C in CKD. The National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) publishes the United States guidelines on hemodialysis vascular access, nutrition in CKD, and hemodialysis adequacy, and issues commentaries on KDIGO guidelines.
Is the KDIGO acute kidney injury guideline being updated?
Yes. The current KDIGO AKI guideline was published in 2012. A draft KDIGO 2026 guideline covering both acute kidney injury and acute kidney disease was released for public review in March 2026, with the review period extended to May 2026. Until the final guideline is published, the 2012 guideline remains the governing document and is the one indexed here.
Are multi-part guideline syntheses available for nephrology yet?
Not yet. This section is new. The site’s usual format, a multi-society synthesis split into sequential part pages with DOI-linked citations, is being written for nephrology and dialysis and will be linked from this page as each series publishes. Until then, the governing guidelines table is the reference.
Are these guidelines a substitute for institutional protocols?
No. They are published professional-society recommendations, indexed here to support clinicians and to inform institutional protocol development. Local protocols, medical direction, and the dialysis unit’s own policies govern actual care.