OBJECTIVES: To assess the consumption of healthcare resources in patients with polycystic kidney disease, and analyse related costs. METHODS: Database analysis of administrative databases, containing information on beneficiaries of four Local Health Units, for around 3.6 million subjects. Data from all patients with polycystic kidney disease in the period January 2010 - December 2012 were analysed, the index-date was the date of diagnosis at hospitalisation; for patients on dialysis, index-date was the first day of dialysis during enrolment period. RESULTS: At the end of the study 1’123 patients with polycystic kidney disease were enrolled (ICD-9 753.1), 11.2% were ADPKD patients. 1.1% of patients was ARPKD, in 16.6% genotype was not specified, and in the remaining ones the disease had not been classified. These four sub-populations were analysed, and the 126 ADPKD patients reported some differences from the overall population enrolled. Mean age in ADPKD group was 48.3 years, versus 57.7 of the entire sample, and the incidence of dialysis was 4-fold (33.3% compared to an overall 8.3%). 1-year consumption of healthcare resources for the 42 dialysed patients with ADPKD was higher than in non-dialysed patients: 27.7 drug prescriptions compared to 14.5, and 28.2recurrences to ambulatory care services compared to 5.1, respectively. Health expenditure for ADPKD dialysed patients was €45’393 per year, €35’693 for ambulatory care, €6’343 for hospitalizations and €3’357 for drugs. For non-dialysed ADPKD patients, total expenditure was €4’288, with €1’760 for hospitalisations; drugs cost was €1’806 - 6% of which for anti-hypertensives - and ambulatory care services amounted to €722. CONCLUSIONS: The reported higher incidence of dialysis - and a lower mean age - highlight the severity of PKD connected to the autosomal dominant type, that eventually leads to an annual burden for NHS of about €45’000 for each ADPKD dialysed patients.