[What is certain in the treatment of glomerulonephritis?]

Glomerulonephritides essentially all belong to the rare diseases; however, they are the most common cause of end-stage renal disease in young adults. Besides obtaining a specific diagnosis via a renal biopsy, assessing the prognosis constitutes the other essential step in the work-up, since this enables a decision to be made on whether supportive care with relatively few adverse effects is sufficient or whether additional immunosuppressive therapy is required. The latter is discussed focusing on the most common European types of glomerulonephritis: immunoglobulin A nephropathy, membranous glomerulonephritis, minimal change nephropathy and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.