Paediatric Nephrology & Hypertension

Location:

Zone E, Level 4, Room 003 (E4-003)

Children's Hospital

800 Commissioners Road East

London ON

Directions and Parking:

Driving directions to Children's Hospital

Park in Parking Lot 7 located on the north side of the hospital. This lot is accessible at the Wellington and Baseline Road entrance.

Contact:

Karen Hildebrandt, Administrative Assistant
karen.hildebrandt@lhsc.on.ca
Telephone: 519-685-8500, Ext. 58379

Contact for Referrals:

Paediatric Nephrologist on-call
Fax: 519-685-8156

Contents

• Our Program
• Our Team
• What to Expect
• Research
• Links & Resources

Our Program

Our Nephrology Program provides a full range of clinical services, including:

• Inpatient and outpatient care for children with acute and chronic kidney disease, congenital renal abnormalities and hypertension.
  
• Consultative services for children hospitalized with other disorders, such as life-threatening disease, and for unborn children with kidney anomalies.
  
• Full diagnostic work-up, including ambulatory 24-hr blood pressure monitoring.

We are committed to:

• Deliver optimal care to children and adolescents in Southwestern Ontario and parts of Northern and Central Ontario.
  
• Maintain a multi-disciplinary childhood end-stage renal disease program including renal replacement therapies.
  
• Foster the development of an integrated basic and clinical research program focusing on the understanding of biology and mechanisms of childhood kidney disease and hypertension.
  

Our Team

Main number	519-685-8500
Dr. Guido Filler, Professor, Chair/Chief Paediatrics	Ext. 58377
Dr. Joanne Grimmer, Assistant Professor	Ext. 58379
Dr. Ajay Sharma, Associate Professor	Ext. 58379
Shelley Casier, CNS/NP	Ext. 52898
Ethel Harris, Nurse Clinician	Ext. 55143
Karen Hildebrandt, Medical Secretary	Ext. 58379
Julie Hendriksen, Administrative Assistant	Ext. 56397
Sherrilynn Sageman, RPN	Ext. 55279
Amanda Finnie, Dietitian	Ext. 53598
Andrew Mantulak, Social work	Ext. 56168
Janice Sumpton Pharmacy	Ext, 58172

What to Expect

Usually, you are referred to our program by a family doctor or a paediatrician in the community.

Before your appointment:

• Check with family members to see if there is any kidney disease in the family.
• Find out if anyone is on dialysis or has received a kidney transplant.
• Look up your birth weight and duration of your mother’s pregnancy.
• Bring all medications that you or your child currently takes.

Remember to bring:

• OHIP card
  
• Vaccination records
• All medications
  
• Record of birth weight and details of pregnancy
  
• A full bladder

Register at the clinic
Our registration booth is located opposite the elevator doors on the right.

Arrive early
Please make sure you arrive at least 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled appointment. This helps to maintain your priority of being seen and to ensure that the clinic stays on time. If the clinics are delayed because of late arrival, then all patients are affected. This is particularly important for the early morning appointments.

After registration
After registration, you will be measured, and your height and weight is taken. When being weighed, be prepared to get out of your shoes. Wear only very light clothing. It might be necessary to weigh infants without their clothing.

One of our nurses will take your blood pressure and record measurements. Please provide your child’s medication and vaccination history to the nurse. It would be extremely helpful to us if you bring this information either clearly written or typed on a piece of paper.

Bring a full bladder
Since you will have to give a urine sample, it helps to bring along a full bladder, so please drink plenty of fluids before you arrive.

Make sure you hold on! Usually during your first appointment, we arrange for an ultrasound of the kidneys. So please don’t go pee before the ultrasound or the appointment. We need to do your ultrasound with a full bladder and we need a urine sample.

Please Note:
Occasionally, for special blood work, your doctor might ask you to arrive fasting. This means no food or drink for a specified amount of time before your appointment. Only clear water is allowed.

Partnerships
In collaboration with the Paediatric Critical Care program, continuous renal replacement therapy is available. Collaborative partnerships with the adult nephrology service, the adult hemodialysis unit of LHSC and with the Southwestern Ontario Regional Self-Care Dialysis Clinic ensure full service dialysis care and teaching for children with end-stage renal disease and their families.

The program is also associated with the Transplant programs at the Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto and the adult Renal Transplant Program at the University Campus of LHSC.

Research

Areas of research include:

• Epidemiology of childhood kidney disease
  
• Measurement of kidney function
  
• Strategies for slowing progression of chronic kidney disease
  
• Dialysis adequacy, aetiology and treatment of hypertension
  
• Improving outcomes after paediatric renal transplantation and
  
• Paediatric pharmacology of drugs used in the field of paediatric nephrology and hypertension
  
• A particular research focus is the ontogeny (developmental changes) of drug disposition of immunosuppressive drugs used in paediatric renal transplantation
  

Links & Resources

Department of Paediatrics Program in Nephrology at the University of Western Ontario.
Canadian Association of Paediatric Nephrologists resource website.
International Paediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA) provides information about kidney disease in children.
PubMed U.S. National Library of Medicine provides biomedical articles and life science journals.
National Kidney Foundation A to Z Health Guide that provides information about Kidney Disease as well as related topics and condition.

Children’s Hospital is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.