Cock Schröder, MD PhD, Professor of Pediatrics

Cornelis Hendrik “Cock” Schröder was born in 1951 and died 19 September 2012 from a pancreatic carcinoma. He received his medical training at the Free University in Amsterdam, specialized in pediatrics, and attended Nijmegen University to receive training in pediatric nephrology under the guidance of Professor Leo Monnens. His first publication appeared in 1984 in Kidney International. It dealt with hydroxylysine excretion in children with Alport syndrome, and his PhD thesis discussed collagen mutations in children with that disorder.

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Meeting of the pediatric writing committee during preparation for the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative guidelines on the adequacy of peritoneal dialysis in children. Cock Schröder stands at the left. Other committee members: (standing beside Dr. Schröder, left to right) Steven Alexander, Alan Watson; (seated, left to right) Franz Schaefer, Bradley Warady, Michel Fischbach, Denis Geary.

At the university hospital in Nijmegen, a number of children were being treated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (PD), which proved to be an important stimulus to Cock’s career. The first of his many papers on pediatric PD was titled “Pseudoperitonitis due to Mumps” and appeared in the Peritoneal Dialysis Bulletin in 1987. In 1997, he became a professor in pediatric nephrology at Utrecht University, and in 2006, he returned to general pediatrics to serve as a tutor in a community hospital.

Cock Schröder was an active clinician and investigator in all aspects of pediatric renal replacement therapy, with an emphasis on PD. He published 140 scientific papers, most of which addressed a wide variety of clinically important issues pertaining to the care of children receiving PD. The results of his research on topics such as the intraperitoneal administration of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents; exit-site care and peritonitis; peritoneal transport of solutes and fluids, including lymphatic absorption and free water transport; icodextrin; “biocompatible” dialysis solutions; continuous-flow peritoneal dialysis as a treatment for acute kidney injury; and recently, the proteomics of peritoneal effluent have made a substantial contribution to the pediatric PD literature. He was a major contributor to the treatment guidelines produced by the European Pediatric Dialysis Working Group, and he served as a key consultant to the writing committee of the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative guidelines for peritoneal dialysis adequacy published in 2006.

Wulfhild, Cock’s wife, wrote on his funeral card “The love for science, teaching, travelling, art and culture played a big role in your life.” We mourn the loss of Cock at such a young and productive age, but we will always be grateful for having had the opportunity to share with him his love of life, his sincere friendship, and his desire to improve the outcomes of the patients he cared for.