How long does acute nephritis require hospitalization?

Written by Zhou Qi
Nephrology
Updated on September 02, 2024
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Generally speaking, regardless of the disease, the condition is often stable when patients are discharged from the hospital, including the management of acute nephritis. The length of hospital stay for patients with acute nephritis depends on the individual condition of the patient. If the condition of acute nephritis is mild and the patient does not have obvious symptoms, such as mild proteinuria and hematuria, such patients may be hospitalized for about a week. After assessing the condition and predicting gradual improvement, the patient can be discharged. However, if acute nephritis causes some serious complications and the patient's condition is unstable, such as leading to congestive heart failure, some patients may also develop acute renal failure and severe consequences like lung infections. Before these complications are controlled and stabilized, the patient cannot be discharged, and the hospital stay may even exceed one month.

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Written by Hu Lin
Nephrology
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What causes acute nephritis?

The full name of acute nephritis is post-infectious glomerulonephritis, so as the name suggests, acute nephritis is related to infections. The most common cause is acute streptococcal infection. There are also infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Gram-negative bacteria. The main pathogenic mechanism is due to a series of immune responses caused by streptococcal infections, leading to an immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis. The most common sites of infection are the respiratory tract and skin, with a latent period of one to three weeks.

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Written by Li Liu Sheng
Nephrology
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What are the symptoms of acute nephritis?

Acute nephritis is commonly seen in children. Most cases of acute nephritis are preceded by a history of streptococcal infection one to three weeks before the onset. Once acute nephritis occurs, the main symptoms include the development of edema, especially swelling of the eyelids and face after waking up in the morning. Additionally, patients with acute nephritis will also experience hematuria, which can be visible or microscopic, with increased foam in the urine and a change in color, and even a decrease in urine output. Of course, patients with severe acute nephritis will also experience a significant increase in blood pressure, leading to nausea, vomiting, headaches, palpitations, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and an inability to lie flat, resulting in heart failure. Therefore, patients with acute nephritis need to undergo reasonable and standardized treatment to avoid complications.

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Written by Zhou Qi
Nephrology
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How many days does the fever last in acute nephritis?

Generally speaking, acute nephritis itself does not cause fever symptoms in patients. Acute nephritis can cause visible hematuria and an increase in foamy urine. Some patients may also experience a reduction in urine output, severe edema, kidney failure, and other clinical symptoms. However, fever is not a common symptom caused by acute nephritis itself. If such patients develop a fever, it may be due to lung or gastrointestinal infections caused by acute nephritis, as patients with acute nephritis have lowered immune capabilities and are often prone to bacterial infections in other parts of the body, such as coughing and sputum production. In such cases, the patient might have lung inflammation and would require antibiotic treatment to kill the bacteria. Generally, most patients' conditions can be controlled after 10 to 14 days.

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Written by Zhou Qi
Nephrology
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What are the symptoms of acute nephritis?

All patients with acute nephritis will have abnormalities in routine urinalysis, presenting with hematuria or proteinuria, or both concurrently. However, the severity of the condition varies. Some patients may have a large number of red blood cells in their urine, resulting in gross hematuria, tea-colored urine, light red urine, or urine resembling washed meat. Patients might also experience an increase in urine foam due to a large amount of urinary protein. Additionally, patients may develop acute renal failure, during which they might experience a decrease in urine output. However, all mentioned conditions can gradually improve over the course of three to four weeks, with increases in urine output, normalization of routine urinalysis, and resolution of edema.

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Written by Hu Lin
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Symptoms of acute nephritis.

The symptoms of acute nephritis are mainly manifested as acute nephritic syndrome, that is, hematuria, proteinuria, edema, hypertension, and transient acute kidney injury. Hematuria is a symptom present in almost all cases of acute nephritis, but it is mostly microscopic hematuria, meaning during examination, the routine urine analysis shows positive occult blood, or red blood cells are found in the urinary sediment. About 40% of the patients may exhibit gross hematuria, where the urine color appears like wash-water or may be bright red, deep tea-colored, and so on. The second symptom is proteinuria, which is also often indicated by a positive urine protein test during routine checks. The third symptom is edema, an early symptom of acute nephritis. Mildly, it presents as swelling of the eyelids in the morning and can spread to the whole body if severe. The fourth symptom is hypertension, with about 80% of patients showing a moderate increase in blood pressure. In severe cases, patients might experience oliguria, with urine output less than 400ml/d, accompanied by transient mild increases in blood creatinine and urea nitrogen, indicating acute kidney injury. This condition is mostly self-limiting, and many patients can recover within a few weeks.