Serum Creatinine 5.0 should Dialysis Be Started

Serum creatinine means creatinine level in the blood and the typically adopted serum creatinine reference value is 0.5-1.0mg/ml for female and 0.7-1.2 for male. So we can see that creatinine 5.0 is relatively high creatinine level and it means that the patients’ kidney functions have been severely damaged for long time and there are much accumulation of wastes products and toxins including creatinine, BUN, uric acid, etc in the patients’ body.

But serum creatinine 5.0 is not definitely related with dialysis. Some patients may start dialysis even when creatinine is only 3.6 and there are also patients who began dialysis when creatinine has been 11. Weather dialysis should be started should not only depends on serum creatinine level and there are many other factors that need to be taken into account such as GFR and kidney functions.

Of cause the measuring of serum creatinine level is very necessary and it is very easy to exam creatinine level with simple test. Creatinine level reflects substantial renal damages and only when more than half kidney functions are lost can there be abnormality in creatinine. When kidney functions decrease, these metabolic wastes and toxins can not be removed and they will continue to accumulate in the body and cause a series of symptoms and discomforts with the constant metabolisms. That is why many patients complain their creatinine rise into very high level within months or even days.

Usually patients with creatinine of 5.0 will have a series of discomforts and symptoms such as swelling, high blood pressure, increased night urination, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, headache, anemia, blood urine, foamy urine and heart failure, etc.

Serum creatinine can be used to calculate the patients’ GFR according to gender, age, weight and race. When GFR falls below 10-15 or patients develop very serious symptoms such as refractory fluid retention, abnormal blood potassium and blood phosphorus, dialysis will be offered to help clear too much wastes and toxins from the blood and alleviate pains and discomforts.

However dialysis should not be the only way to lower creatinine or patients will rely on dialysis and lost their residual kidney functions little by little. Herbal medicines can be used during or after dialysis which can help reduce the side effects of dialysis, improve kidney functions and reduce the frequency of dialysis.