Drug Treatment For Polycystic Kidney Disease

Treatments for polycystic kidney disease include drugs, surgery, osmosis remedy, diet therapy as well as dialysis and kidney transplant. Here we mainly talk about drugs that are prescribed to PKD patients.

The functions of drug treatment for PKD is mainly to ease symptoms and control complications. Back pain, abdominal pain, infections especially urinary tract infection (UTI), high blood pressure, blood in urine are the common PKD symptoms. Sometimes patients will experience these symptoms even before they know they have multiple renal cysts in their kidneys.

The following is a list of drugs and medicines prescribed to PKD patients.

Painkiller. Usually PKD causes dull and persistent pain in the back, abdomen or flank. However sometimes the pain can become sharp, sudden or unbearable. Painkillers can be used to alleviate pain feeling. It should be noted that many over-the-counter drugs can cause renal damages, therefore it is better to have prescribed drugs and your doctors can help choose those that have no or less renal toxicity.

Antibiotics. PKD patients often have frequent urinary tract infections, cyst infection or even kidney infections. The combination of water-soluble and fat-soluble antibiotics can treat infections and avoid more serious consequences.

Blood pressure medicines. High blood pressure is one early sign of PKD and it is one major factor that can worsen renal damages. It is very important for PKD patients to seek early and effective treatments to bring high blood pressure well under control. The ideal blood pressure for PKD is 130/80mmHg and this can help slow decline rate of kidney functions and lower the mortality rate.

Though these drugs are effective at relieving symptoms and discomforts, they can not cure PKD and some certain drugs can even worsen already impaired kidneys if they are not taken properly. Therefore patients should not rely on drug treatment alone. There are many alternative treatment options such as diets and osmosis therapy which have been proved to be very effective.