How many stages are there for renal failure?

Nowadays, many people often encounter the problem of renal failure. Generally, renal failure can be divided into several stages. The most common ones are three stages, and some are even divided into four stages. Different stages will cause different damages to renal function, so everyone should be vigilant about renal diseases in normal times and take early prevention measures.

Chronic renal failure is a general term for chronic kidney disease that has deteriorated to a certain stage, and is not the name of a single disease. Normally, when the blood creatinine of a kidney disease patient begins to become abnormal, it often indicates that the patient's kidneys have been damaged and are beginning to enter the range of renal failure. Clinically, according to the different degrees of renal function damage, it is currently advocated to be divided into four stages:

1. Compensatory stage of renal failure At this time, the endogenous creatinine clearance rate (Ccr) is reduced, but above 50mL/min, blood creatinine is below 178μmoL/L, and blood urea nitrogen is below 9mmoL/L. There are generally no clinical symptoms. It is also called the stage of decreased renal reserve function.

2. Decompensated renal failure: Ccr is 25-50mL per minute, and blood creatinine rises to above 178μmoL/L (2mg/dL). When blood urea nitrogen reaches 9 mmoL/L (25 mg/dL) or above, there is no obvious discomfort except mild anemia, gastrointestinal symptoms, and increased nocturia. However, the clinical symptoms worsen with fatigue, infection, blood pressure fluctuations or excessive protein intake. This is also called the azotemia stage.

3. Renal failure stage: Ccr is 10-25mL per minute, blood creatinine is 221-442μmoL/L, blood urea nitrogen is 17.9-21.4mmoL/L. Most of them have obvious digestive symptoms and anemia symptoms, mild metabolic acidosis and abnormal calcium and phosphorus metabolism, but no obvious water and salt metabolism disorder. This is called early uremia.

4. Uremia stage: Blood creatinine > 442μmoL/L, blood urea nitrogen > 21.4mmoL/L. Various symptoms of uremia often occur, such as obvious anemia, severe nausea, vomiting, various neurological complications, and even coma, with obvious disorders of water-salt metabolism and acid-base balance. When Ccr is less than 10 ml per minute and blood creatinine is greater than 707 μmoL/L, it is called the terminal stage, also known as the late stage of uremia.