A nephrology consultation was called on 100 adult patients of 1,635 (6.1%) patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection seen between 1982 and 1987 at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. Renal disease was observed in all groups of patients with a risk factor for HIV infection with a lesser incidence, however, among homosexuals. Intravenous drug (IVD) use and possibly race appear to be important factors in the development of renal complications. Renal disease was the dominant clinical feature in eight asymptomatic HIV carriers and in 34 patients with AIDS-related complex (ARC) who had not developed the opportunistic infections and/or malignancies associated with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Ninety-one percent of consultations were requested for evaluation of proteinuria and/or renal failure. Nephrotic range proteinuria, in excess of 3 g/24 h, was present in 52 patients, and was less prevalent in homosexuals than in other groups at risk. Renal failure (serum creatinine greater than or equal to 5 mg/dL), initially present in 32 patients, eventually developed in 69 and improved in only 18 of them. A renal biopsy, obtained for work-up of nephrotic syndrome (22 patients) or renal insufficiency (3 patients), uncovered a picture of focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis in all 25 instances. Overall, 76 patients are dead, seven are lost to follow-up, and 17 are alive, of whom eight (four HIV carriers, two patients with ARC, and two with AIDS) are on maintenance hemodialysis with a mean survival time of 217 days.