The European Survey on Anaemia Management (ESAM) was devised as a follow-up initiative to the European Best Practice Guidelines on the Management of Anaemia in Patients with Chronic Renal Failure (EBPG), published in "Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation" in 1999 (14, Supplement 5). Both the EBPG and ESAM were formulated with the aim of optimizing anaemia management in patients with renal failure across Europe. The EBPG provided the nephrologist with evidence-based clinical guidelines for managing renal anaemia, while ESAM was developed to survey current clinical practice in a representative sample of western European renal units. The survey utilized a longitudinal observational design, with data collected at baseline and at each subsequent month for a total of 6 months. The data corresponded to key aspects of the EBPG, and included patient demographics, aetiology of renal failure, concomitant pathology, epoetin and iron management, dialysis treatment, adjuvant therapies, and adverse effects.

The results were reported on a sample of 14,427 dialysis patients from western European countries, corresponding to approximately 10% of the European dialysis population. A total of 13,121 patients (90.3%) were on haemodialysis and 1,406 patients (9.7%) were on peritoneal dialysis. 267 patients from Israel participated in the survey.