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Chronic kidney failure
Chronic Renal Failure Treatment Plan
The treatment of chronic renal failure primarily requires a clear understanding of the cause, and treatment targeting the cause is essential to slow the progression of chronic renal failure. The most common causes of chronic renal failure are diabetes, hypertension, and chronic nephritis. Therefore, for patients with chronic renal failure caused by diabetes, insulin is often needed to control blood sugar. For patients with hypertensive kidney disease, antihypertensive drugs are certainly necessary to control blood pressure. However, in the early stages of renal failure, ACE inhibitors or ARBs are the preferred choices. For patients with chronic nephritis in the early stages, corticosteroid medications are required for treatment. However, if the serum creatinine has already exceeded 256 micromoles per liter, treatment then focuses mainly on managing complications, and corticosteroids are no longer used. (Please use medications under the guidance of a doctor.)
Can patients with chronic renal failure have sexual intercourse?
Patients with chronic renal failure can have sexual intercourse, but there are prerequisites. Since sexual activity is physically demanding and requires adequate cardiopulmonary function, patients can engage in sexual activity if they do not experience chest tightness or shortness of breath and their blood pressure is well controlled. If there are no obvious symptoms of fatigue, difficulty breathing, or chest tightness during sexual activity, there should be no significant problems. However, since the patients have chronic renal failure, it is advisable to avoid conception unless prepared for pregnancy. Pregnancy can further burden the kidneys in female patients and potentially exacerbate chronic renal failure. Male patients with chronic renal failure may be taking medications that could affect sperm quality. Therefore, contraception should be practiced unless preparations have been made.
Can chronic kidney failure CKD5 be cured?
The so-called CKD refers to chronic kidney disease. According to the glomerular filtration rate, CKD is divided into 5 stages, where stage 5 means that the patient's glomerular filtration rate has fallen below 15 milliliters per minute, which is equivalent to uremia. Chronic renal failure is irreversible and cannot be recovered, so it is impossible for patients whose condition has progressed to later stages to recover. Therefore, for such conditions, the only option is to choose renal replacement therapy so that the patient can survive. Renal replacement therapy mainly includes hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or kidney transplantation.
Can chronic renal failure reproduce?
Patients with chronic renal failure, if they are male, can attempt to conceive under the guidance of a clinic doctor after discontinuing the use of medications that affect fertility; usually, there are no major issues for male patients. However, for female patients, attempting to get pregnant carries a significant risk because pregnancy increases the burden on all organs, including the kidneys, which can exacerbate kidney diseases, especially in cases like lupus nephritis. Nevertheless, not all patients with chronic renal failure are absolutely unable to conceive; some have successfully managed the risks associated with pregnancy. In such cases, it is necessary to weigh the pros and cons.
What are the symptoms of chronic kidney failure?
Chronic kidney failure generally may have some clinical symptoms, but many patients do not have any discomfort. Some common clinical symptoms mainly include increased urine foam and decreased urine output. Due to the decline in renal function for urine excretion, it can lead to edema, particularly in areas such as both ankles and the face. In the state of renal failure, patients may also experience hyperkalemia and metabolic acidosis. Due to metabolic acidosis, patients might exhibit deep and labored breathing. In the advanced stages of kidney failure, patients may suffer from renal anemia, leading to fatigue and potentially experiencing bone pain and susceptibility to fractures due to renal osteodystrophy.
Can chronic renal failure become pregnant?
Although patients with renal failure are not absolutely unable to become pregnant, pregnancy is ultimately a burden on the kidneys. Pregnant patients with renal failure may experience further deterioration of kidney function and may face numerous complications during pregnancy, such as heart failure, severe anemia, etc., which may pose some risks. However, there are still very rare case reports, including successful pregnancies in patients on dialysis for uremia, but the probability of this is extremely small, and the risks involved are too great. Generally speaking, it is not recommended for female patients with chronic renal failure to become pregnant.
Chronic Kidney Failure Various Indicators
In patients with chronic kidney failure, the primary indicator to observe is obviously kidney function. It is essential to regularly monitor the patient's blood creatinine and urea nitrogen levels, which are generally required to be tested every 1 to 3 months when chronic kidney failure is stable. Additionally, urine output should be monitored. If there is a decrease in urine output and swelling occurs, it may indicate that the patient's kidney function is continuously deteriorating. A complete blood count should also be checked to observe changes in the patient's anemia status. Chronic kidney failure often causes hypertension, so blood pressure monitoring is also necessary for these patients. Electrolyte monitoring is important as kidney failure can lead to disturbances in calcium and phosphorus metabolism and subsequent secondary hyperparathyroidism. Therefore, the levels of calcium, phosphorus, and parathyroid hormone also need to be tested.
What should I do about coughing caused by chronic kidney failure?
Patients with chronic renal failure who experience coughing should first analyze whether it is caused by an infection. In such cases, routine blood tests and chest CT scans are needed to confirm whether there are any infectious lesions in the lungs. Additionally, it should be checked whether the patient has systemic lupus erythematosus, vasculitis, or other conditions, as these diseases can affect the lungs and cause pulmonary lesions leading to coughing. Therefore, treatment should be targeted based on the cause. If the cough is due to an infection, antibiotics are required, but the dosage must be adjusted according to the patient's kidney function. If the cough is due to pulmonary changes caused by a systemic disease, targeted treatment for the systemic disease is needed.
Principles of Treatment for Chronic Renal Failure
The principles of treatment for chronic renal failure include early-stage non-dialysis conservative treatment as well as end-stage renal replacement therapy. Non-dialysis conservative treatment includes delaying the progression of kidney damage, which requires treating the primary disease, implementing nutritional support, and controlling factors that accelerate kidney disease progression, such as controlling high blood pressure, proteinuria, and hyperlipidemia. Additionally, it is necessary to eliminate metabolic waste from the body, and maintain the body's water, electrolyte, and acid-base balance. Renal replacement therapy includes hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and kidney transplant therapy.
Chronic renal failure inevitably has symptoms.
Patients with chronic kidney failure do not necessarily have symptoms, and the symptoms of each patient are not exactly the same. Chronic kidney failure refers to the damage to the kidneys by various chronic kidney diseases, eventually leading to the kidneys' inability to adequately excrete metabolic waste, causing the accumulation of water and metabolic waste in the body. This leads to disturbances in the patient's electrolytes and may also present clinical symptoms such as anemia and hypertension. However, not all patients feel discomfort, so chronic kidney failure is also known as the silent killer. If a patient undergoes a blood test, it will show an increase in blood creatinine and urea nitrogen, which is the only common feature among all patients with chronic kidney failure.