End-stage renal disease and associated dialysis procedures alter homeostatic mechanisms and adversely affect the respiratory, cardiac, and central nervous systems. Currently outcomes research in acutely injured trauma patients utilizes Trauma and Injury Severity Score methodology with the Injury Severity Score and Revised Trauma Score, which do not account for comorbidities. Literature has yet to emerge that analyzes the effects of end-stage renal disease on acutely injured trauma patients. A retrospective review at an urban Level I trauma center was performed of all end-stage renal disease patients' medical records who were admitted for acute traumatic injury from 1994 through 1997. The charts were abstracted for age, sex, race, method of dialysis, specific injury, need for operation, etiology of trauma, length of stay, disposition from hospital, morbidity, and mortality. The Injury Severity Score; probability of survival; and W, M, and Z statistics were then calculated. The data collected were then compared with the overall data for the trauma center including patients with and those without end-stage renal disease during this time period. Mortality for patients with end-stage renal disease after suffering an acute traumatic injury is 2.45 that of the general population. Increased mortality was most prevalent in operative patients and those with Injury Severity Score >15. The average length of stay in the hospital was 55.3 per cent longer for patients with end-stage renal disease. Pre-existing end-stage renal disease negatively impacts survival after traumatic injury. A prospective multicentered study comparing renal patients with nonrenal patients is warranted. This would confirm the need for databases to account for the increased morbidity and mortality associated with end-stage renal disease when calculating probability of survival values for acutely injured trauma patients. Similarly future studies analyzing the affects of other comorbidities such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and hypertension on acutely injured trauma patients would help develop a more accurate method of predicting outcomes.