Autosomal recessive PKD is a rare form of the disease that affects children, with cysts sometimes developing before birth. About 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 40,000 babies are born with the disorder. Severely affected babies die in the first days of life, while others with a milder version may live into their teens or twenties. Drug treatment can control PKD-related problems such as high blood pressure and urinary tract infections. If kidney failure develops, the patient is treated regularly with a procedure called dialysis that does the kidney s job to cleanse the blood, and sometimes treated with a kidney transplant.
Kidney cysts are a feature of certain other disorders.
These include multicystic kidneys, which affect about 1 in 4,000 babies. This disorder, which varies greatly in severity, can cause death in the newborn period when both kidneys are affected. It is believed that multicystic kidneys result from an obstruction in the urinary tract during the early stages of development. Babies with only one affected kidney may have few consequences, such as urinary tract infections. Kidney cysts also can be a feature of a number of genetic syndromes.