Chronic Kidney Failure

Chronic Kidney Failure Treatment

There is no cure for chronic kidney failure, but treatment can alleviate symptoms, reduce complications, and slow progression. If the underlying condition that caused your kidneys to begin to fail is treatable, such as high blood pressure, your Wellstar physician will help you control that condition. However, any kidney damage that has occurred before treatment can cause the kidneys condition to continue to worsen.

Complications of kidney failure can often be controlled to improve quality of life, and to slow further progression of the disease. In particular, some complications, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol can worsen the condition of the kidneys. Treatment will attempt to break this vicious cycle.

Treatments of complications of kidney failure include:

• Controlling high blood pressure. Chronic kidney failure is often accompanied by increasing blood pressure, which can be controlled with medications to inhibit angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) or block angiotensin II reception. These medications can themselves impact kidney function, so you may be given blood tests to monitor your kidneys condition.
• Lowering cholesterol through statins and a low-cholesterol diet.
• Increasing production of red blood cells. If your kidney failure has caused anemia (low red blood cell count), resulting in fatigue, you may be prescribed erythropoietin, a hormone that induces production of red blood cells..
• Reducing swelling caused by fluid retention. If you are retaining fluids, you may be given diuretics..
• Medications to protect bone health. Kidney failure often affects the balance of calcium and potassium in the blood, causing bone loss. Calcium and vitamin D supplements as well as potassium binders help ensure that there is enough calcium to keep your bones strong
• Reducing the volume of waste products in the blood with a low-protein diet.
• Avoiding medications that worsen kidney function.

You will likely meet with a Wellstar dietitian to help you plan a diet to reduce kidney stress.

End-stage kidney failure is when kidneys have less than 15% of normal function. At this point, replacing their function, either through dialysis or transplant, becomes necessary:

• Dialysis is the artificial removal of waste and excess water from your blood.
• Hemodialysis is pumping blood from your body, through a machine that performs these functions, and back into your body.
• Peritoneal dialysis is the pumping of a solution that absorbs waste products and excess water into your abdomen, removing it when it has bound the waste and fluids.
• Kidney transplant. If, besides your kidney failure, you are generally healthy, one of your failed kidneys may be replaced with a normal kidney from a living or dead donor.