Mortality from renal diseases in Finland.

A study of mortality from renal disease in Finland in 1951-1982 showed overall rise up to 1962 and thereafter decrease. Extensive use of phenacetin may have contributed to the temporary increase of deaths, but precise evidence is lacking. Renal dialysis and transplantation have effected notable reduction of mortality rates. In the early 1980s half of those who died of renal disease at ages younger than 70 had not received dialysis or transplantation. If these measures had been unrestrictedly available, more patients in this group might have survived.