What are the Causes of Kidney Failure

Kidney failure can be divided into two different types, acute onset type and chronic onset one. Acute kidney failure is sudden and sharp renal condition deterioration which occurs due to reduced blood supplement to the kidneys, renal obstructive factors, toxicity from certain medicines, etc. Chronic kidney failure in prolonging course causes gradual loss of kidney functions and deterioration of the illness condition thus leading to the occurrence of end-stage kidney disease (ESRD).

Acute kidney failure should be distinguished from chronic kidney failure. The causes of acute kidney failure can be categorized into three types, pre-renal factors, renal factors and post-renal factors. People experience three stages in acute kidney failure—oliguria stage, polyuria stage and recovery stage. Pre-renal factors are the conditions that reduce effective circulatory blood volume and result in insufficient renal blood perfusion. Post-renal causes refer to the conditions which cause urinary tract obstructions, including urinary tract stone, bilateral renal pelvic effusion, prostatic hyperplasia, tumors, etc. By timely removing the underlying conditions renal function can recover. Renal causes are the conditions that damage the kidneys directly, and this mainly include Nephrotoxic medicines, infections, metabolic disorders (such as hyperuricemia nephropathy, hypercalcemia, etc), tumors, etc.

Acute kidney failure can be diagnosed based on history of the primary condition and the characteristics of oliguria and urine change. In people with chronic kidney failure, long-term progression of the disease causes gradual decline of kidney function and the occurrence of kidney failure. Chronic kidney failure is defined as any kind of refractory kidney condition that lasts for over three months, there are abnormal results through lab testing, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) less than 60%.

Poorly or not timely treated chronic kidney disease can aggravate the illness condition and cause end-stage kidney failure over periods of time. Statistics suggest that up to 43.2% of kidney failure is due to Diabetes; 23% cases are caused by hypertension, 12.3% cases are caused by glomerulonephritis, and some 2.9% cases are caused by Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). Some other causes also include Henoch-Schonlein Purpura Nephritis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), IgA Nephropathy, etc. Some poorly treated cases of acute kidney failure may also develop into chronic kidney failure.

Kidney disease is a latent disease so that people don’t pose evident symptoms at early stages. When people pose symptoms such as edema, swelling, high blood pressure, hematuria, etc, this should raise people’s concern for proper and timely treatment. In delayed or poorly controlled cases, people are prone for progressing into end-stage kidney disease(ESRD) much faster.

So, if people find any abnormal changes suspectible for kidney disease, such as swelling, blood and protein in urine, high blood pressure, high creatinine, poor appetite, weakness, nausea, ammonia odor, etc, please note you will need to seek for full check-ups to confirm whether you have kidney disease and the current renal condition. Always remember that early detection, prevention and timely treatment is the best way to improve prognosis; people who are at earlier stage get better treatment effects than later phages, and of course what treatment to apply play a key role.