The recently established National Dialysis Registry is an organ of the Artificial Kidney-Chronic Uremia Program of the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. At present there are about 5,000 patients in irreversible kidney failure who are kept alive with the aid of long-term dialysis; a small number are awaiting renal transplants. A progressive trend from hospital-based treatment to home dialysis is discernible. The gross annual death rate (based on an observation of less than two years) is approximately 9%. The most common immediate causes of death terminating long-term dialysis are (in order of decreasing importance) cardiac disorders, cerebrovascular disease, and other vascular complications and infections.