Proper Use of Antibiotics to Treat Lupus Nephritis

Lupus nephritis is one type of nephritis due to the deposition of immune complexes in the kidneys and it is the main complication and cause of death of SLE. The common symptoms and signs indicating renal damages are proteinuria, edema, high blood pressure and decline of renal functions.

The root cause of immune complex deposition is disorder and dysfunction in the immune system. This is one of the major reasons of catching infections and viruses because their disease resistance is much lowered.

On the other hand, impairment of renal functions is another cause of frequent infections. In the early stage of lupus nephritis kidney functions can be normal, however kidney will experience progressive decline with illness progression. Reduced kidney functions can not remove wastes and toxins from the blood efficiently, so patients are susceptible to get infections.

In a word, immune disorder and impairment of renal functions make patients easy to catch infections.

In case of infections or cold, patients should have timely and proper treatments. Usually antibiotics will be prescribed, therefore it is important and necessary to know how to properly use antibiotics because in some case improper use of antibiotics can even cause additional renal damages.

Maintain original dose or slight reduction: these antibiotics is mainly discharged outside through the liver.

Proper dosage adjustment: these antibiotics have slight renal toxicity and they will stay in the body in case of declined renal functions.

Avoid using: these antibiotics have obvious renal toxicity and they are mainly discharged outside through the kidneys such as tetracydine, nitrofurantoin, etc.

One commonly prescribed antibiotics for lupus nephritis is Sultamicillin Tosylate. It can be used to treat bacteria infections such as respiratory tract infections like tonsillitis, bronchitis and pneumonia, urinary tract infections and skin infections, etc.

But it can cause a series of side effects such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, headache, anemia, liver dysfunction or even interstitial nephritis, etc. In case of any discomforts, report it to the doctor and adjust the medicines.

For the elderly, they should have proper dosage and interval of taking antibiotics under the doctors’ guidance.