Dialysis Helps Remove Water from Plasma in NS

Nephrotic syndrome (NS) patients will suffer from edema with varying degrees. It is often the first sign of NS and in serious conditions there will often be serous cavity effusion.

Dialysis can be applied to alleviate edema by removing excessive water from the plasma.

Why there is edema in NS

Massive proteinuria is the typical and necessary symptom of nephrotic syndrome. When the glomerular filtration membrane is damaged, protein in plasma will pass through this membrane and when the amount is beyond the ability of the re-absorption, these plasma proteins (especially albumin) will be leaked into urine. The loss of large amount of protein will cause hypoalbuminemia which will lower the plasma colloid osmotic pressure and cause fluids in the blood vessels to flow into the interstitial tissues. This is the main reason of edema and the retention of water and sodium is one of the aggravating factors of edema.

Patients usually have puffy eyes in the morning and other forms of edema include pitting edema in the legs, pleural effusion (fluid in pleural cavity), pulmonary edema, ascites (fluid in the peritoneal cavity) as well as edema in the whole body.

Dialysis is an effective renal replacement therapy which can help remove excessive metabolic wastes and toxins in the body and rectify disorders of water, electrolyte and acid-base balance. It can help remove the excessive fluids in the plasma, interstitial tissues and cavities so as to alleviate edema.

Though dialysis can eliminate edema, it can not repair damaged glomerular filtration membrane and reverse the continuous deterioration of renal functions, edema will be very easy to relapse. What is more, since dialysis is a renal replacement therapy, patients will become dependent on dialysis if it is the only treatment for a long time. Therefore treatments that can help repair glomerular filtration membrane and increase GFR should be received. Some herbal medicines have the functions of regulation and repairing and they will cause fewer side effects in the long run.