What Is Kidney Failure? How Is Chronic Renal Failure Treated?

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The kidney is an important organ of the human body, which plays an important role in the urinary system and the absorption system of the human body. Once kidney disease occurs, it will affect all parts of the human body. Therefore, many people are constantly concerned about the health of their kidneys. However, kidney patients are often confronted with the term kidney failure. So, people may wonder what kind of disease is kidney failure?

1. What is renal failure?

Renal failure is a pathological state that occurs in the accumulation of human kidney diseases. Generally speaking, there are two types of renal failure, acute and chronic.

1. Acute renal failure. Acute renal failure is generally an acute pathological state reflected by the damage to a certain function of the kidney or the invasion of a certain toxin.

2. Chronic renal failure. Chronic renal failure is generally a pathological state caused by the continuous decline of kidney function due to the accumulation of kidney lesions over time.

Renal failure is a pathological state of a partial or total loss of renal function caused by the development of various chronic kidney diseases in the later stage. Renal failure can be divided into acute renal failure and chronic renal failure. There will be different symptoms. The symptoms, it is divided into three periods. How to distinguish?

Renal failure should be detected early and treated early. It is crucial to understand the early symptoms of renal failure. Renal failure affects every system of the body and has various clinical manifestations. The types of underlying diseases that lead to chronic renal failure are related to the degree of renal failure.

The kidney has a strong compensatory function. When the glomerular filtration rate is above 50ml/min, the serum creatinine can be normal, and the patient can have no symptoms, which are easily ignored by the patient. When the glomerular filtration rate is above 30ml/min, most patients often have no subjective symptoms, or only have increased nocturia, fatigue and backache, and mild ankle edema.

In addition, patients with chronic renal failure caused by the glomerular disease may have clinical hematuria and proteinuria, and hypertension is more common. Patients with chronic renal failure caused by the tubulointerstitial disease are more often manifested as anemia, metabolic acidosis, and increased nocturia.

Clinically, the symptoms of renal failure are also manifested in three periods: oliguria, polyuria, and recovery.

1. Oliguria stage: the most critical stage of the disease, the internal environment is seriously disturbed. Patients may have oliguria (<400ml/day) or anuria (<100ml/day), low specific gravity (1.010-1.020), hypernatremia, hematuria, proteinuria, and cast urine. Severe patients may develop water intoxication, hyperkalemia (often the cause of death in this period), metabolic acidosis (which can promote the occurrence of hyperkalemia), azotemia (uremia may occur with progressive aggravation), etc. endangering the patient's life. This period lasts from a few days to a few weeks, and the longer it lasts, the worse the prognosis.

2. Polyuria period: After the oliguria period, the urine volume gradually increases. When the daily urine output exceeds 500ml, the polyuria period is entered. Since then, the urine volume has doubled day by day, and the maximum urine volume is 3000-6000ml per day, and it can even reach more than 10000ml. At the beginning of the polyuria period, although the urine volume increases, the renal clearance rate is still low, and the accumulation of metabolites in the body still exists. After about 4 to 5 days, serum urea nitrogen and creatinine gradually decreased with the increase of urine volume, and the symptoms of uremia also improved. Excessive excretion of potassium, sodium, chloride, and other electrolytes from the urine can lead to electrolyte imbalance or dehydration. It should be noted that the peak stage of the oliguria period may turn into hypokalemia. This period lasts 1 to 2 weeks.

3. Recovery period: urine output gradually returned to normal, and renal function gradually recovered within 3 to 12 months. Most patients' renal function returned to normal levels, and only a few patients turned into chronic renal failure.

2. How to treat chronic renal failure?

1. Peritoneal dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis is one of the most commonly used treatments for chronic renal failure. The operation of peritoneal dialysis is simple. Generally speaking, it can effectively relieve the renal function of patients with renal failure, thereby reducing the disease and the burden on patients.

2. Hemodialysis. Hemodialysis is the use of dialysis to help patients get rid of excess waste produced by metabolism in the body. However, hemodialysis requires patients to go to the hospital regularly for hemodialysis, and hemodialysis brings relatively great physical pressure to patients with chronic renal failure. Generally, hemodialysis is not recommended for the treatment of chronic renal failure.

3. Kidney transplantation. For patients with end-stage chronic renal failure, kidney transplantation is the best treatment when the patient is suitable for certain conditions. However, kidney transplantation is a major operation and carries certain risks. Therefore, multiple evaluations are needed before surgery to reduce the risk of surgery and improve the success rate of surgery.