Should I be on Dialysis when My Creatinine is 480

Actually, serum creatinine level is a not a simple indicator to determine if dialysis should be started. If you have creatinine 480, doctors will need to examine your renal function and types/ severity of complications to suggest if dialysis should begin.

As we know, creatinine is a non-protein waste product of creatine phosphate metabolism by skeletal muscle tissues. Creatinine production is continuous and proportional to muscle mass. Normally creatinine is filtered freely by the kidneys and therefore the serum creatinine level mainly depends on the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The normal range of serum creatinine in healthy individuals is 53 to 140 umol /L. The kidneys can compensate so creatinine level doesn’t increase at once in kidney diseases. Only if kidney function has dropped by over 50 percent will creatinine level increase obviously.

Elevated creatinine, thereby, is linked to severe loss of kidney function, and it means that many other wastes accumulate in bloodstream as well. Those toxins can make people vomit, poor appetite, itchy on skin, and very weak. Retained water in the body may cause swelling, worsened blood pressure and shortness of breath. In addition, poorly functioning kidneys can cause electrolyte disorders, especially the high potassium can cause muscular weakness, arrhythmia, cardiac disorders, etc.

Usually, creatinine 707 mmol/L is considered an indicator for starting dialysis. However, if people have a creatinine 450(lower than 707) but have severe complications of kidney failure as the above-mentioned, dialysis will also be suggested by your doctors. In some cases, the patients have creatinine higher than 707mmol/L but the complications are not evidently presented, dialysis can also be delayed.

In kidney disease patients with Diabetes, the complications of kidney failure tend to be more complicated and serious than other kidney disorders so they often start dialysis earlier. Diabetes can damage blood vessels in heart, feet, eyes, etc which will combine with renal complications. In end-stage kidney disease, diabetic patients are more likely to experience infections, heart disease and other complications which can make the condition dangerous. Timely starting dialysis before the complications are uncontrollable has been proven beneficial for improving the prognosis in patients who experience advanced kidney diseases.