SummaryLittle is actually known about the minimum daily requirement for most vitamins in the patient with end‐stage renal disease. Many of the studies reviewed suffer from lack of adequate control populations and differing methodologies, making comparisons between these studies difficult. However, patients with renal failure have many restrictions on their dietary intake, frequently suffer from intercurrent illness, and would seem to be at risk for vitamin deficiency. Also, metabolic abnormalities associated with the loss of kidney function may increase the daily requirements for certain vitamins. It is unlikely that dialysis losses of the water‐soluble vitamins alone could account for vitamin depletion, and these other factors are likely to play a much more important role.It is of interest to note that the studies which demonstrate little or no vitamin deficiencies are those studies which have been carried out more recently (8, 9, 17). The patients were usually given some vitamin supplementation prior to or during the period of study and thus it is not surprising that most patients failed to demonstrate vitamin deficiency. It is also likely that heightened awareness regarding the propensity for patients with renal failure to develop deficiencies of the water‐soluble vitamins has resulted in better dietary instruction and earlier intervention with vitamin supplementation. More efficient dialytic methods have also reduced the restrictions on many foods, and patients are no longer instructed to boil all their fresh vegetables. Although there may be the risk of toxicity when vitamin supplementation is overzealously administered to patients with reduced renal excretory function, it seems prudent to administer some of these water‐soluble vitamins to patients with end‐stage renal disease who are treated with intermittent dialysis therapy (Table 1). Certainly, this is not a very costly approach. Further studies should be carried out to better evaluate vitamin nutriture in chronically uremic and maintenance dialysis patients and to more rigorously define the minimum dose that would prevent deficiency and avoid