Chronic kidney disease

INTRODUCTION: Continued progression of kidney disease will lead to renal function too low to sustain healthy life. In developed countries, such people will be offered renal replacement therapy in the form of dialysis or renal transplantation. Requirement for dialysis or transplantation is termed end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

METHODS AND OUTCOMES: We conducted a systematic review, aiming to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of a low-sodium diet to reduce progression rate of chronic kidney disease? What are the effects of a low-protein diet to reduce progression rate of chronic kidney disease? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to September 2014 (Clinical Evidence overviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this overview).

RESULTS: We found seven studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS: In this systematic overview we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: low-protein diet versus control, different low-protein diets versus each other (low-protein diet versus very low-protein diet), low-sodium diet versus control, different low-sodium diets versus each other.