LIMITS

Study background

Kidney transplantation transforms the lives of children with severe kidney disease. It allows many to return to a life without frequent hospital visits or dialysis treatment. But the transplant itself is a big operation.

In the first few days after kidney transplant, doctors give very large volumes of artificial fluids into the veins to keep the new kidney working.

More than half of the children experience complications from the excessive fluid in the body, but too little fluid can slow down the function of the newly transplanted kidney.

Current fluid guidelines are not supported by study data, and the optimal amount of fluid for children after transplant is not known

Study hypothesis

The LIMITS trial will determine if relative limitation of fluid volume administered to children receiving kidney transplant is superior to usual liberal fluid volume administration.

Study design

LIMITS is a pragmatic multi-centre open label randomised controlled trial with internal pilot phase and integrated economic evaluation in all ten UK paediatric kidney transplant centres. Participants will be randomised to receive either liberal or capped fluid volume. We will compare the number of days spent at home to 30 days after transplant in each group.