Outcome 10 years after Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC)-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome: importance of long-term follow-up

Background Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is an important cause of acute kidney injury in children.

HUS is known as an acute disease followed by complete recovery, but patients may present with kidney abnormalities after long periods of time.

This study evaluates the long-term outcome of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli -associated HUS (STEC-HUS) in pediatric patients, 10 years after the acute phase of disease to identify risk factors for long-term sequelae.

Methods Over a 6-year period, 619 patients under 18 years of age with HUS (490 STEC-positive, 79%) were registered in Austria and Germany.

Long-term follow-up data of 138 STEC-HUS-patients were available after 10 years for analysis.

Results A total of 66% ( n  = 91, 95% CI 0.57–0.73) of patients fully recovered showing no sequelae after 10 years.

An additional 34% ( n  = 47, 95% CI 0.27–0.43) presented either with decreased glomerular filtration rate (24%), proteinuria (23%), hypertension (17%), or neurological symptoms (3%).

Thirty had sequelae 1 year after STEC-HUS, and the rest presented abnormalities unprecedented at the 2-year ( n  = 2), 3-year ( n  = 3), 5-year ( n  = 3), or 10-year ( n  = 9) follow-up.

A total of 17 patients (36.2%) without kidney abnormalities at the 1-year follow-up presented with either proteinuria, hypertension, or decreased eGFR in subsequent follow-up visits.

Patients needing extracorporeal treatments during the acute phase were at higher risk of presenting symptoms after 10 years ( p  < 0.05).

Conclusions Patients with STEC-HUS should undergo regular follow-up, for a minimum of 10 years following their index presentation, due to the risk of long-term sequelae of their disease.

An initial critical illness, marked by need of kidney replacement therapy or plasma treatment may help predict poor long-term outcome.

Graphical abstract A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information