Treatment Options for IgA Nephropathy

IgA Nephropathy is an illness which may cause blood in urine and protein in urine. Tight control of it is a must, as it is the only way for patients to avoid dialysis and kidney transplant. Well, what is the treatment for IgA Nephropathy? Here is the introduction for different treatment options of IgA Nephropathy.

Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy is the most commonly used treatment method for IgA Nephropathy patients due to its following characteristics:

1. It shows quick effects in getting all the symptoms under control like hematuria and proteinuria.

2. It slows down illness progression, which is very important for these whose illness develops quickly.

3. This treatment method is very common and almost available for all the IgA Nephropathy patients and everywehre.

Although hormone therapy is very effective and helpful for IgA Nephropathy patients, it is not ideal, because long-term usage of them always cause many side effects. Besides, for children with IgA Nephropathy, long-term use of them may cause influence on their mental development and physical development.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a treatment in which both Chinese medicine and western medicines are used. Differently from treatment we mentioned above, Immunotherapy not only focus on symptoms of IgA Nephropathy, but also the kidney and immune system.

Compared with steroids, it has the following advantages:

1. Immunotherapy shows permanent treatment effects, because it works on kidney and immune system, not the symptoms of IgA Nephropathy.

2. Immunosuppressive agents are temporarily used in it. This can help to prevent side effects caused by impairment of immune system, which usually appears easily after long-term usage of immunosuppressive agents.

3. Abnormal immune system can be normalized in this treatment. IgA Nephropathy is a kidney problem which is associated with immune disorder. Therefore, normalization of immune system is very necessary.

Immunotherapy also has its disadvantage which refers to the characteristic that it is just for IgA Nephropathy patients who still have good urine output.

In one word, hormone therapy and Immunotherapy has their own advantages in treating IgA Nephropathy and to receive satisfactory treatment effects, they should take the right treatment method according to theri specific illness condition.