What happens with kidney failure? Consequences of kidney failure

Renal failure is a slow process, which goes through four stages: renal compensation stage, azotemia stage, renal failure stage, and uremia stage. The symptoms of each stage are different, and treatment must be tailored to the disease.

1. Compensatory renal function

Although the renal reserve capacity has been lost at this time, the ability to excrete metabolic products and regulate water, electrolytes and acid-base balance is still good, and the patient has no special feelings; during renal function tests, blood creatinine and blood urea nitrogen are usually normal or sometimes slightly elevated.

2. Azotemia stage

Patients experience nocturia or polyuria, varying degrees of anemia, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, and mild general discomfort. In severe cases, vomiting and diarrhea may also occur.

3. Renal failure stage

Patients may have obvious anemia and gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite; they may also have symptoms such as fatigue, inattention, and lack of energy.

4. Uremia stage

At this time, the patient shows symptoms of systemic organ failure, such as increased blood pressure, palpitations, chest tightness, nausea, vomiting, irritability, inability to lie flat, difficulty breathing, severe anemia, convulsions, and in severe cases, coma. The patient needs to rely on dialysis to maintain life and may often die suddenly due to cerebral edema, pulmonary edema, and heart failure.

5. Other symptoms

Hematuria (blood is brown or red), high blood pressure, frothy urine, thirst, restless sleep, or lethargy, and loss of libido.

Among patients with chronic renal failure, some gradually develop the disease from kidney disease. If you feel some of the above discomforts, accompanied by high blood pressure, drowsiness, yellow skin and other symptoms, you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment immediately to avoid delaying the disease.

Warm reminder: Patients with chronic renal failure must be followed up regularly. The frequency of visits should be determined by the condition, such as whether there is hypertension, heart failure, and accelerated deterioration of residual renal function. All patients need to visit the doctor at least once every 3 months. During the visit, the medical history and physical examination must be asked, and necessary laboratory tests must be done, such as routine blood tests, routine urine tests, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine concentration, as well as electrolytes, serum protein, parathyroid hormone, ferritin, C-reactive protein, etc., and symptomatic treatment should be actively given according to the condition.