The disease when the kidneys fail is what is called. Kidney failure - symptoms and signs of a critical condition

Any chronic disease sooner or later leads to functional insufficiency of the affected organ: it can no longer cope with the work assigned to it and begins to “jump”. The urinary system is no exception. What to do if the kidneys fail: why is this happening, how long does the patient have left to live, and is there a chance for recovery?

Causes and mechanism of development of renal failure

The kidney is a vital organ for a person in which the processes of filtration and reabsorption of blood, formation, primary accumulation and excretion of urine take place. The loss of the ability to perform the functions assigned by nature causes gross violations of the body and, in the absence of timely medical care, can lead to death.

Kidney failure can be the result of acute and chronic pathology.

Diseases leading to acute renal failure

a sharp decrease in the volume of circulating blood caused by injuries, massive blood loss, burns, etc.;
septicemia;
acute urinary retention caused by a tumor, blockage of the ureter with a stone, prostate adenoma in men;
acute ischemic damage to the tubules of the kidneys;
poisoning with poisons or toxins;
crash syndrome;
acute tubular nephritis/glomerulonephritis;
DIC;
sudden obstruction (blockage) of blood vessels that feed the kidney.

Pathologies causing chronic renal failure

chronic inflammatory diseases of the kidney (pyelonephritis, glomerulonephritis);
urolithiasis disease;
hydronephrosis;
tumors of the urinary system.

In more than 90% of cases, the disease develops in adults. However, medicine knows cases of acute or chronic renal failure in children and adolescents. Provoking factors can affect both one organ and both. Bilateral kidney failure has an extremely poor prognosis.

In the pathogenesis of the disease, several key points are distinguished:

Violation of blood filtration by nephrons.
Accumulation in the body of toxins and end products of metabolism (urea, ammonia, urobilinogens).
Poisoning of internal organs, persistent disruption of their work.
Violation of water and electrolyte balance.
Acute respiratory, cardiovascular failure, failure of the central and peripheral nervous system.
development of renal coma.
Fatal outcome.

If a person has kidney failure, negative health effects develop very quickly. It is important to recognize them as early as possible in order to begin therapeutic measures to purify the blood and prevent internal organ failure.

Clinical signs of kidney failure

Depending on the provoking factor and the characteristics of the course of the disease, the symptoms of kidney failure in humans vary somewhat. But in the clinical picture of the pathology, the following pathogenetic signs are always present - a violation of the processes of urine excretion and intoxication of the body.

Acute renal failure manifests itself:

a sharp decrease in the amount of urine excreted during the day (or a complete cessation of diuresis) - oliguria / anuria;
the appearance of blood in excreted urine (with microscopy of the urinary sediment, a large number of leached erythrocytes is determined);
noticeable swelling of the face and upper limbs;
persistent increase in blood pressure;
one- or two-sided aching, pulling pains in the lower back;
signs of intoxication - weakness, drowsiness, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, unbearable skin itching, characteristic ammonia smell from the mouth;
symptoms of fluid stagnation in the body: pulmonary edema, ascites.

With acute renal failure, signs of kidney failure progress rapidly: in the absence of timely treatment, patients live no more than 3-7 days.

Chronic kidney failure has the following symptoms:

at the initial stage - an increase in the volume of daily diuresis (polyuria), then oliguria and anuria;
frequent urge to urinate in the evening and at night (nocturia);
puffiness;
signs of general intoxication: dizziness and frequent headaches, aching in large joints; indigestion, bad breath, yellowish skin tone.

It is often difficult for a patient to notice a deterioration in his condition, since the kidneys fail gradually in chronic renal failure. Therefore, all patients with chronic pathology of the urinary organs after the treatment should remain in the dispensary and undergo regular examinations. The slightest signs of progression of the disease should not go unnoticed by the doctor.

Diagnostic methods

Diagnosis of patients with suspected acute or chronic urinary insufficiency is based on:

data of anamnesis and typical clinical picture;
clinical blood and urine tests;
Reberg's test data, urine tests according to Zimnitsky;
biochemical analysis of blood (special attention - to the level of creatinine and urea, reflecting the degree of disruption of the urinary organs);
Ultrasound of the kidneys (allows you to find out how kidney failure developed, as well as the likely causes of the condition);
other methods of visual diagnostics (radiography, excretory urography, MRI and CT).

Treatment: what are the patient's chances

What to do if a patient has kidney failure? Current methods of treating the condition today are:

Elimination of the causes of the disease. Depending on the provoking factor, the patient is prescribed a course of antibiotics, uroseptics, cytostatics, etc.
Correction of the main signs of pathology requires the use of diuretics, antihypertensive drugs, agents for the prevention of liver failure (Hofitol, Lespenefril).
Symptomatic treatment of possible complications (anemia, cardiovascular insufficiency, cerebrovascular accidents).
Renal replacement therapy, which includes blood purification using the "artificial kidney" apparatus.

How many years of life a patient has remains depends on many factors. According to statistics, hemodialysis can effectively purify the blood for 20-25 years or more. In order for a patient with kidney failure to live for a long time, it is important to regularly undergo dispensary examinations and follow the doctor's recommendations. Kidney failure today is not a sentence, but a disease that can and should be treated.

Water wears away a stone, from the first sore throat or bronchitis in 1–1.5 years to hypertension, heart attack, stroke, 20, 40, 60 years pass, so the cause of these diseases is lost and forgotten, which begin to be treated again systematically with vasodilators and anticoagulants drugs.

What role do the kidneys play in the body, how vital are they for us, what should we do if they suddenly get sick? These questions should be asked by every person, and, above all, by every parent with a small child, and the answers to them should be known to everyone. Let's try to understand all this for ourselves in order to avoid tragedies in childhood, youth, and at any age, when the kidneys suddenly failed. The whole point of these questions is that the kidneys never suddenly fail. The process that led to such an unpleasant ending lasts for many years, but proceeds gradually, secretly. And therefore it turns out that the kidneys are an insidious organ, you need to be very careful with them.

The kidneys are a paired organ for the excretion of end products of tissue metabolism: water, nitrogenous compounds and some salts are waste products of a global chemical process that takes place in our tissues and is called metabolism.

In the kidneys there is an abundant network of arterial vessels, twisted in the form of glomeruli.- glomeruli that filter the blood serum, releasing everything unnecessary from it with the formation of the so-called primary urine. But this primary urine is diluted, about 120–150 liters are excreted per day.

And therefore, in the kidneys there is also a tubular apparatus - a huge labyrinth of tubules, where the primary urine is filtered. The walls of the tubules are lined with epithelium capable of concentrating primary urine to its normal specific gravity (1.012–1.018) and quantity (1.5–2 liters per day).

In order for this to happen, fluid reabsorption takes place in the tubules against a density gradient, which is associated with a large enzymatic work occurring in the epithelium of the walls of the tubular apparatus. And any enzymatic work is a synthetic process associated with the absorption of energy.

When does the failure of this entire complex system begin?

Numerous case histories and protocols of anatomical autopsies indicate the following. Already the first sore throat in a child's life or the first inflammatory process in the respiratory tract (ARI, influenza, etc.) introduces a certain amount of microbes into the glomerular apparatus of the kidneys, that is, into the arterial vascular network. Together with microbes, dead epithelial cells of the mucous membrane of the respiratory organs, which are formed during inflammation, get there.

A few such sessions of pollution of the vessels of the kidneys are enough (repeated tonsillitis, influenza, acute respiratory infections, scarlet fever), and the glomeruli become inflamed. Inflammation is often acute: the wall of blood capillaries is damaged, blood enters the urine, and it becomes red. At the same time, the child's temperature rises, back pain appears - this is acute glomerulonephritis.

The treatment of acute glomerulonephritis currently accepted in medicine - antibiotics, sulfonamides, corticosteroids - in order to stop, suppress the process of inflammation of the glomerular tissues.

This goal is achieved: the inflammatory process in the kidneys is suppressed, but not eliminated. Dead bodies of kidney cells and microbes formed during inflammation are not completely removed from the kidneys. Lingering in the walls of the renal vessels or getting with the urine stream into the tubules or renal pelvis, where the tubules open, they cause a new inflammatory process.

Now (immediately or after some time: several months, several years) the tubules fall ill, and nephronephritis or pyelonephritis occurs. Very often, glomerulonephritis (inflammation of the renal glomeruli) becomes a chronic process.

The permeability of the walls of arterial capillaries is disturbed, and they begin to pass large molecules of serum proteins, albumins, dissolved in the blood serum from the blood serum. The patient loses protein - the building material of body tissues, this is a dangerous symptom that threatens with a serious violation of immunity and requires treatment.

Modern medicine offers antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs and hormones, that is, the treatment tactics remain the same as in an acute inflammatory process. The result is the proliferation of connective tissue in the foci of inflammation, the formation of the so-called secondary wrinkled, that is, sclerosed kidney.

It is necessary to know that the proliferation of connective tissue occurs during a chronic inflammatory process in any organ: in the liver it is cirrhosis, in the lungs - sclerosis and emphysema, in the myocardium - cardiosclerosis, in the vessels of the brain - sclerosis, cerebral stroke, in the brain tissue itself - epilepsy.

So, sclerosis of the vessels of the kidneys (as a result of their inflammation) in the initial stage causes arterial hypertension. Hence "youthful", malignant, untreated hypertension.

In fact, hypertension at any age is called symptomatic or essential.(that is, from an unknown cause), has a single cause - inflammation of the vascular apparatus of the kidneys, anemia of the renal tissue, the release of such damaged kidneys into the bloodstream of the hormone renin. And it causes a spasm of the capillaries of the whole organism, including the vessels of the brain, heart and the kidneys themselves.

Vasospasm leads to an increase in blood pressure, and if the vascular walls are damaged (inflammation - defects in the inner lining of the vessels) in a variety of organs (heart, brain, lungs, liver), cholesterol, calcium salts, nitrogenous products (that is, protein) metabolism - these are uric acid crystals.

All this “byaka”, being deposited on the walls of large and small arteries, causes sclerosis and ulceration of these walls, and then thrombosis (blockage) of the lumen of the vessels. As a result, myocardial infarction, cerebral stroke, etc. occur.

Such processes can occur in any organ (including the kidneys) due to bleeding of the tissue area in which the thrombosed vessel is located. The truth becomes clear: when one organ in the body (that is, the organ system) falls ill, others that are close or far from it also fall ill, it does not matter, since all organs are washed by the same blood, lymph and tissue fluid.

However, “the fairy tale soon affects, but the deed is not done soon”, especially in the human body, equipped with a huge number of protective mechanisms at every level of its existence - biochemical, physiological, physical, nervous, hormonal, psychological.

But water wears away a stone, and from the first sore throat or bronchitis in 1–1.5 years to hypertension, heart attack, stroke, 20, 40, 60 years pass, so the cause of these diseases is lost and forgotten, which begin to be treated again systematically with vasodilators and anticoagulants.

Thus, for decades, people continue to neglect the laws of nature, force their body with drugs, destroying the internal organs created by divine wisdom.

But what happens to the kidneys themselves if the pathological process proceeds more intensively in them? Inflamed glomeruli fail, the same thing happens with inflamed tubules. They cease to function, so-called renal failure occurs.

The glomeruli are not able to filter extremely toxic low-molecular nitrogenous compounds (urea, uric acid, creatine, creatinine and others) from the blood serum, their concentration in the blood serum (the so-called residual nitrogen) rises, azotemia or uremia sets in - poisoning of the whole organism with its own waste protein exchange.

Now, to save the patient's life, medicine resorts to blood filtration through an artificial kidney or kidney transplant. The success of these methods will be discussed in the next article.

From all of the above, the conclusion suggests itself: it is better to prevent kidney disease than to treat it, and if, nevertheless, it has come, treat at the very beginning and possibly at an early age.

How do you know that the kidneys are sick if there are no obvious, catastrophic symptoms - red urine, high fever, back pain, even no protein in the urine?

You need to know that with any sore throat, bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza, acute respiratory infections, sinusitis, and even more so bronchial asthma, the kidneys get sick. But, being a very patient and "silent" organ, the kidneys do not let you know about their distress, but continue to do their job of cleaning the blood serum in order to prevent us from being poisoned by our own nitrogen.

They refuse immediately and just as silently. This can occur at the age of 15, and at 45, and at 60, but it is most likely to save the kidneys and cure them completely in childhood and adolescence, when the growth of the body has not yet been completed and there is a full opportunity to create new tissues - glomeruli and tubules - instead of damaged ones. .

But in order for this to happen, drug therapy is in no way suitable, since it suppresses the immune system, the regenerative abilities of body tissues and leads to the processes already described.

Now, in official medicine, this version has been created: let children with diseased kidneys be treated with drugs and hormones (since it is impossible to stop the pathological process without hormones), and with age, “this will all pass” and the child will “outgrow” the disease.

But, unfortunately, this does not happen, but the following happens: during puberty, fully new endocrine glands begin to function - the ovaries and testes. They secrete into the blood a large amount of sex hormones that have not been received before.

The body's metabolism includes new, powerful components that improve tissue trophism and thereby compensate for the disease, but do not cure it, since the cause - the presence of purulent foci in the body - has not been removed.

These foci of dormant infection come to life after 25-30 years (or earlier), when tissue growth ends and some “tissue depression” sets in as a result of the accumulation of stresses of various origins: nutritional, environmental, psychological, etc.

Here comes the moment when the kidneys “suddenly failed”, and then the work for surgeons begins, that is, the connection of an artificial kidney or a kidney transplant, followed by the introduction of drugs that suppress the immune system so that the transplanted kidney is not rejected.

Another option: a patient with chronic pyelonephritis is treated by a neuropathologist for ... radiculitis - it occurs even more often and lasts quite a long time (years), until the same ending comes - the kidneys failed.

Therefore, people - sick and healthy - need to know that any pain along the spine, its deformation, neuralgia of the intervertebral nerves is the result of a chronic disease of the internal organs: bronchi, lungs, stomach, pancreas, kidneys.

Cleanse these organs, renew their tissues with the methods of natural therapy, and the spine will straighten itself, the pains will pass, the dislocated discs will fall into place. By yourself? Yes, by itself, because the long spasm of the intervertebral muscles, which causes all this pathology, will stop. The cause of the spasm is pathological nerve impulses coming from diseased organs to the corresponding segments of the spine.

How to avoid such a disappointing picture - the transformation of some diseases into others and their endless treatment?

Every person, and even more so a parent (we started with this), needs to be aware of the great vulnerability of kidney tissue and all the consequences that result from this.

Therefore, in case of any disease of a child or an adult, it is necessary to immediately start cleansing the tissues (blood, lymph, intercellular fluid, cells) of the whole organism. It is with this general cleansing that the kidneys are also cleansed - very successfully and with a quick result.

What is general cleansing and how is it done? This is, firstly, drinking a large amount of liquid to enhance the circulation of the lymph and remove cellular toxins by the lymph flow into the papillae of the colon mucosa, from where they are thrown out with the contents of the colon.

But this requires regular bowel lavage for 1-3 weeks daily with saline, herbal infusions. You need to drink about three liters of liquid per day, which cleanses and nourishes the cells of the body, and not just water. These are decoctions of herbs with the addition of honey and citrus juices.

Herbs are selected according to the principle of purification of all body systems: respiratory, digestive, excretory. The state of the musculoskeletal, nervous and circulatory systems directly depends on the state of the first three.

It can be the following medicinal herbs: mint, oregano, lemon balm, yarrow, chamomile, plantain, bearberry, sage, nettle, motherwort and others.

Eating solid food must be excluded for this period in order to stop the process of digestion and the release of digestive enzymes. This is necessary to activate the work of proteolytic tissue enzymes that break down and remove pathological inclusions and diseased, slagged cells from cells. With such a global tissue cleansing, the therapeutic effect occurs within 10–15 days, and the final recovery, depending on the age and duration of the disease, takes 6–12 months. During this time, it is necessary to carry out a 10–15-day cleansing course of treatment every 3 months (herbal decoctions, juices, intestinal lavage).

In between, it is necessary to observe a regimen of biologically complete, that is, raw plant-based nutrition with the inclusion of a large amount of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, sprouted cereals, vegetable and butter, cream, raw egg yolks and, of course, a wide variety of freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices.

Almost all juices are acceptable and very useful: apples, carrots, beets, pumpkin, cabbage, celery, parsley, Jerusalem artichoke, melon, cherry, plum, grapes, but watermelon juice is especially healing, not only in the treatment of kidneys, but also in the treatment of bronchitis and bronchial asthma, which is carried out in exactly the same way.

It is especially necessary to say about one fatal mistake in the treatment of acute and chronic glomerulonephritis, when the patient loses protein in the urine (normally, there is no protein in the urine).

In order to make up for these protein losses, patients begin to intensively feed animal protein - meat, cottage cheese. This aggravates the disease, since a foreign animal protein, being the strongest antigen, causes the formation of antibodies to food proteins (40% of these proteins are absorbed in the small intestine in the form of molecules that have retained their antigenic abilities).

The next stage of excessive immunogenesis is the formation of antibodies to the body's own tissue proteins. Autoimmune processes arise and develop with the effect of a snow avalanche, destroying the body and, first of all, the kidneys. They are treated, that is, suppressed, with hormones and non-hormonal immunosuppressants. This process is doomed to complete failure.

Lack of protein nutrition in chronic and acute renal disease is the first condition for recovery, since the walls of the renal vessels and tubules are not destroyed by aggressive antibodies that are ready to destroy everything in their path, including the body's own tissues. Natural carbohydrates in fruit and vegetable juices, on the contrary, provide building material for the restoration of damaged kidney tissue. published

Why does kidney failure occur? Symptoms and consequences, as well as the causes of this pathology will be presented below. We will also tell you about whether this disease can be treated.

basic information

Failure of the kidneys, the symptoms of which should be known to all patients, is a serious pathology in which the paired organ of the renal system loses all ability to filter fluid and blood. As a result of this phenomenon, the entire chemical balance of the human body is disturbed.

The symptoms of kidney failure are known to few. Therefore, in this article, we decided to describe all the signs of this disease. After all, it is deadly, and therefore requires immediate contact with an experienced specialist.

If the patient recognized all the symptoms of kidney failure in time, and the treatment was chosen correctly, then such a disease is quite successfully corrected.

The essence of the problem

Symptoms of kidney failure can vary from person to person. It depends on the severity and type of the disease. Experts say that there are two types:

chronic;
acute.

About what features such pathological conditions have, we will tell further.

Chronic kidney disease

Symptoms of kidney failure in the chronic course of the disease proceed gradually. Signs of the disease can increase, disappear, and also appear suddenly. This state of affairs makes the diagnostic process quite difficult.

The following diseases lead to chronic disorders of kidney function with their subsequent failure:

pyelonephritis;
kidney tuberculosis;
nephritis;
hydronephrosis;
oncology;
polycystic kidney disease.

Various endocrine diseases, cardiovascular pathologies and others can also have a negative impact.

According to experts, the delay of symptoms in renal pathologies occurs due to the fact that over time, healthy tissue of paired organs compensates for the injured. But soon the damaged tissues increase so much that the kidneys cease to function normally.

Acute form of the disease

Symptoms of kidney failure in the development of acute failure can develop within a few hours. Sometimes such pathological changes take several days.

Most often, kidney failure occurs unexpectedly. It can be observed even against the background of the patient's well-being. The consequences in this case can be dire.

As a rule, such a problem develops due to a violation of the water balance in the human body, problems with blood circulation, and others. As a result of these disorders in the kidneys, the accumulation of decay products occurs, which, in fact, is the cause of intoxication.

Main reasons

Kidney failure can occur for a variety of reasons. At the same time, experts say that such a pathological condition most often occurs due to:

Also, experts recommend paying attention to those problems that can act as a catalyst for the pathology in question. These can be serious burns of the body, and an increase in the level of potassium in the blood, and prolonged dehydration, and so on.

What are the symptoms of kidney failure?

As mentioned above, the signs of failure of the renal system can be different. However, they are all fairly typical. And if you observe at least one of the symptoms, you should immediately consult a doctor.

So how does kidney failure happen? Symptoms (death in this pathology occurs only in acute and severe conditions) of the mentioned condition are as follows:

the patient has nausea, loss of appetite and vomiting;
appear serious (may be partially interrupted or stop completely);
weakness and malaise are observed;
such a common symptom as puffiness develops;
body weight increases significantly (as a rule, this occurs due to the accumulation of excess water in the tissues);
there are severe pains in the abdomen, as well as skin itching and others.

It should be noted that all of the listed symptoms should especially attract attention if such a problem as the appearance of blood in the urine develops against their background.

Other signs

What other symptoms may indicate kidney failure? According to doctors, if the treatment of the disease in question was not started on time, then the following may be added to the main symptoms listed above:

problems with consciousness;
dyspnea;
drowsiness;
the appearance of hematomas on the body.

In addition, in advanced cases become more serious. Often, patients experience fainting and even coma.

Possible consequences

Now you know why kidney failure occurs. Symptoms (blood sugar in such a pathology may be normal, or may increase), accompanied by a similar phenomenon, were also presented above.

According to experts, the consequences of the pathology in question can be deadly. Very often, complete kidney failure is preceded by necrosis, that is, the death of tissues of paired organs. Such a process can lead to the development of a rather serious infection.

It should also be noted that in chronic kidney failure due to prolonged accumulation of toxic substances, the patient may experience problems with the nervous system, as well as severe convulsions.

The consequences of failure of the renal system include the development of anemia. In addition, the heart and blood vessels suffer. This happens due to the fact that the fluid retained in the body gives a double load on the entire vascular system.

It should also be noted that the abnormal functioning of the kidneys often leads to problems with the strength of bone and cartilage tissues.

Treatment process

Treatment for failure of the renal system should be done in stages. Only an experienced specialist who relies on the results of analysis and other medical studies has the right to carry out therapy.

The system can be cured completely. As for chronic, the therapy of such a disease is a rather lengthy process. In this case, a complete cure may never occur.

Each provides for the implementation of specific actions:

It should also be noted that if the kidneys are unable to perform their main function, patients undergo intraperitoneal dialysis or hemodialysis using the “artificial kidney” apparatus.

In very severe and advanced cases, an urgent transplantation of a donor organ is required.

Summing up

From the foregoing, we can safely conclude that early diagnosis, as well as proper treatment of renal failure, will stop the disease and prevent the development of complications.

A special role in the treatment of such diseases has a low-protein diet with a restriction on the use of sodium and phosphorus. It should be remembered that self-treatment in case of kidney failure is life-threatening, therefore, when observing the main symptoms of this problem, you should immediately consult a specialist.

Being a vital organ, the kidneys provide the function of removing toxins from the body, the formation and outflow of urine. Any violations lead to a change in the normal rhythm of the organs and the manifestation of various pathologies. But what if the kidneys fail? Is there a predisposition to the disease, what does it threaten and are the consequences fatal when the kidneys fail or can a person still live for a long time? The answers to these questions are extremely important and one should be aware of the signs of kidney failure and the patient's management options.

Symptoms of acute renal failure

Depending on the causes and duration, the signs of the condition may vary, but in any case, kidney failure is accompanied by a partial or complete absence of urine. Due to the accumulation of urine, intoxication of the body occurs, the tissues of the organ die off, necrosis of the kidneys leads to a complete failure of functions. These are clear signs of kidney failure, and the consequences: urinic coma or intoxication, leading to heart attacks, strokes. Therefore, it is extremely important to know all the symptoms of kidney failure in a person in order to proceed with immediate treatment, otherwise a fatal outcome is a sad inevitability.

Kidney failure is accompanied by the following pronounced symptoms:

A sharp decrease in the daily volume of urine - oliguria.
Complete cessation of urine flow - anuria;
Weight gain, visible swelling of the face, ankles, hands;
Loss of appetite, bouts of nausea, vomiting;
A state of malaise, severe fatigue;
Sharp jumps in pressure, often upward;
An increase in salt in the urine;
Pain in the lumbar region;
Signs of poisoning: itching, fever;
The appearance of blood in the urine.

Kidney failure in the last stage of acute failure causes a high degree of intoxication of all organs. There may be bruising, fluid buildup in the lungs, heart failure, shortness of breath, and very bad breath. When the kidneys fail, the patient begins to tremble and the person falls into a coma.

Important! Acute renal failure often occurs unexpectedly for the patient. The disease in this form is incredibly dangerous in its dynamics of development: in the absence of help, patients can die in 7-8 hours.

Chronic insufficiency: signs of the disease

In chronic kidney failure, the symptoms of which are similar to acute pathology, occur against the background of destruction of the organs and a decrease in the number of efficient nephrons. As a result, the patient's body does not get rid of toxins and residues of waste products. Differences in symptoms in the absence of clear signs up to the development of pathology: a healthy kidney pulls over the functions of the patient, and the damaged organ can work until the last stages of necrosis. As the disease progresses, the overload of intact sites leads to the fact that tissues can begin to die off much faster and the destruction of the kidney is accelerated. The process continues until the degree of complete failure of the filtering organ or the relief of pathology.

When the kidneys fail in the chronic course of the disease, the following symptoms are observed:

Frequent nighttime urge to go to the toilet, but very small quantities of urine come out;
Polyuria - an increase in the total amount of daily urine;
Bleeding gums;
Puffiness, especially pronounced in the morning and in the evening;
Decreased appetite;
Pain in the chest, bones;
Bad breath;
Change in skin color to yellowness with the addition of a brown tint;
Bleeding, hematoma;
Aminorrhea, but only in women.

Laboratory tests of urine will show a high concentration of urea in the form of "uremic frost" - crystalline compounds.

Important! Unlike the acute form of the disease, the chronic one develops very slowly. Patients are often unaware of kidney failure: diseases develop in the form of nephritis. If the patient does not go to the doctor, the process is aggravated by headaches, a decrease in sexual desire, and potency decreases in men. Decreased immunity leads to the fact that patients with kidney failure are easily susceptible to any infectious diseases, ending in complications. As a result, the patient receives a severe heart attack, stroke or fatal pathologies

Why do kidneys fail?

Being the filtration protection of the body, the kidneys play an important role, and if the kidney fails, the consequences can be fatal. Poisoning with toxins and other elements that are no longer excreted in the urine leads to the need for third-party intervention, otherwise people will not survive. There are several reasons why the disease and three forms of insufficiency occurred:

Prerenal - circulatory problems lead to organ failure. Most often occurs in patients with thrombosis, diabetes mellitus.
Renal - provoked by a violation of the parenchyma of the organ due to exposure to chemicals, drugs, tissue death as a result of untreated pyelonephritis, other nephritis and renal pathologies.
Postrenal or "disease of the elderly", appears due to low patency of the urinary tract caused by prostate adenoma, necrotizing papellitis or urolithiasis.

We should not forget that the kidneys can fail due to trauma, severe burns, dehydration, excess potassium in the body.

Consequences of diseases

Prolonged circulatory disorders in the organ, swelling due to stagnation of blood in the lungs, infectious diseases - all these factors in the appearance of necrosis of the cortical substance, causing kidney failures, the causes are very different, but the result is always the same - the lack of treatment leads to the death of the patient:

Reduced production of erythropoietin is anemia;
A change in the composition of the blood leads to the loss of some functions of leukocytes, which increases the patient's risk of any infections, while the number of healthy leukocytes in the blood gradually decreases;
The cardiovascular system is working for wear and tear, hypertension often appears, aggravating chronic renal failure and provoking heart attacks, strokes;
Problems with the gastrointestinal tract are expressed in internal bleeding, which is why people have hematomas.

All pathologies are deadly, and their combination leaves the patient no chance of survival if there is no medical assistance.

Treatment

If the pathology is diagnosed at the very initial stage, there is a chance to survive and maintain your own kidney in normal working condition. Acute and chronic forms are cured completely! In acute insufficiency, blood transfusion begins, drug therapy is prescribed. The goal is to stop the destructive process and restore the normal functioning of organs.

Antibiotics to stop inflammation. Not only medicines are allowed, but also herbal teas, infusions;
Taking Hofitol, another drug for stopping kidney damage;
The appointment of drugs to maintain and restore normal pressure, facilitate the work of all organs damaged by toxins;
A blood transfusion will completely cleanse the body of decay products.

After that, the patient is left under observation and, as he recovers, additional therapeutic methods of treatment are prescribed. It is necessary to maintain a diet, drinking regimen, the rejection of all bad habits and the normalization of lifestyle.

One option is a donor organ transplant, but there is a risk of kidney rejection. In addition, the queue for receiving an organ is quite long and, one way or another, the patient will have to cope for some time on his own and with conservative treatment methods. In particular, this is hemodialysis - an artificial kidney machine that cleanses the blood of toxins and decay products. Today there are both stationary and compact devices for individual use, so insufficiency is not a sentence, but a disease that you can live with and need to fight.

Forecast

How much is left to live? When asking this question to the doctor, ask how timely the treatment was, and whether all the recommendations of the treatment specialist were followed. Deficiency does not occur from scratch and is preceded by chronic or acute diseases, infections. Sometimes a patient may die after kidney failure, but the cause of death will be different. Modern medicine proves that patients with the disease live a very long time, some have crossed the 10-year threshold, and this is quite a lot, provided that normal healthy communication, work regimen and the speed of life are maintained.

The best option is an organ transplant, but this is not always possible. But even on hemodialysis, patients can live for at least 23 years - these are official statistics. Mandatory addition: symptomatic treatment, obligatory observation of a doctor and implementation of recommendations. The main thing is to recognize the signs in time, and knowing exactly what symptoms appear and the causes of the pathology, it is not difficult to understand the disease.

It should not be thought that a patient with CRF has a few years left and immobility is not! People are limited only in diet and physical activity, in everything else they are exactly the same as everyone else. Portable blood purifiers even allow you to travel.

The kidneys in the human body perform a function that is beyond the power of other organs - they regulate homeostasis or, to put it more simply, they filter blood and plasma, remove urea. Also, these organs contribute to the excretion of the end products of nitrogen metabolism, toxic compounds, and participate in carbohydrate and protein metabolism.

Violation of the excretory function of the kidneys entails a number of consequences that can seriously harm health, and sometimes even lead to death.

What can cause kidney failure?

Kidney dysfunction occurs when kidney failure is either acute or chronic. The main difference between these forms is the period from the onset of the development of the disease to the appearance of the first signs:

Acute renal failure (ARF) develops within hours or days. The cause of the disease is a violation of the water, acid-base, electrolyte, osmotic balance. These changes are reversible because they are of ischemic or toxic origin.

A sharp drop in the number of active nephrons (cells that are responsible for cleansing organs) indicates the development of chronic renal failure (CRF). This provokes poisoning of the kidneys with their own waste products, which the organs could not remove. In the initial stages of the course of the disease, healthy organ tissues are forced to work for themselves and for those parts of the kidneys that cannot function.

So there is an overload of healthy parts of the organs. This leads to even greater disruption of the kidneys. The disease is chronic, so not all symptoms appear immediately, which greatly complicates the diagnosis of the disease. If chronic renal failure is not detected in time, a complete failure of the functioning of organs may occur..

Doctors adhere to the idea that impaired renal function manifests itself as a consequence of such conditions of the body:

Severe symptoms of kidney failure

Kidney failure is a disease in which healthy cells take over all the work that the kidneys do.. This compensates for the inactivity of dead tissues. A person can continue to live normally without feeling the intoxication of the body and not suspecting how poorly the kidneys work. But over time, it becomes more and more difficult for healthy organ tissues to perform their functions, given the heavy loads, the excretory process is disrupted.

If the patient drinks alcohol or takes drugs that are capable of releasing toxic compounds into the body, functioning cells begin to die en masse, unable to withstand the destructive influence.

At the first stage of the development of the disease, the following symptoms of kidney failure in humans appear:

Signs of kidney failure in AKI:

the excretion of urine becomes partial or completely stops;
there are acutely pronounced swelling of the face, ankles;
the patient is gaining weight;
bouts of nausea accompanied by vomiting;
skin itching;
blood is present in the urine;
a fetid odor is felt from the patient's mouth;
develop chronic weakness and malaise.

Having noticed the symptoms of the development of acute renal failure, you should immediately consult a doctor, begin appropriate treatment, otherwise the patient's lungs will fill with fluid, resulting in shortness of breath, drowsiness, and periodic clouding of consciousness. Hematomas that appear on the body will provoke massive internal bleeding.

Most often, the outcome of such a neglected state is a coma.

The disorder of kidney activity associated with CKD has the following symptoms:

Important! To avoid irreparable violations of the normal functioning of the kidneys, it is necessary to consult a specialist at the first symptoms.

Disturbing consequences of the disease

In most cases, due to the development of acute renal failure, necrosis of the renal cortex is manifested. It arises in connection with a prolonged violation of the blood circulation of these organs. Stagnation of blood serves as the basis for the formation of edema. In such a situation, there is a high probability of developing an infection.

The situation is worse with the consequences of chronic renal failure. Uremic toxic substances, accumulating in the patient's body, have a detrimental effect on the nervous system, causing convulsions. The mental function of a person is disturbed, clouding of consciousness is observed.

Kidney dysfunction leads to anemia. It occurs as a reaction to a decrease in the level of erythropoietin, the hormone responsible for the formation of red blood cells. Hematological disorders become the basis for failures in the activity of leukocytes, so the risk of blood infections increases significantly.

Kidney failure can lead to disorders of the cardiovascular system - hypertension. But more dangerous is that strokes and myocardial infarctions provoked by this disease can occur.

The bone tissue of the patient is also exposed to the harmful effects of CRF. As a result, osteodystrophy often occurs. The gastrointestinal tract suffers in its own way - due to a decrease in appetite and weight loss, anorexia may develop, bleeding in the stomach or intestines may begin. The problems that accompany the course of the disease are also metabolic failures, the production of an insufficient amount of vital hormones.

The natural reaction of the patient is the desire to get rid of the disease, to return to life with healthy kidneys. The ability to return functionality to these organs directly depends on the stage of the course of the disease, the correctness of the treatment. The earlier poor kidney function is diagnosed, the higher the chance to save and cure them. Therefore, at the first symptoms, the patient should consult a doctor.

Treatment

The treatment of the patient is prescribed by a qualified doctor, based on the data of clinical examinations and the results of blood tests. You can get rid of the disease completely if we are talking about acute renal failure and its timely diagnosis. The chronic form of the course of the disease requires long-term therapy, but this does not guarantee the salvation of the organ.

Treatment at different stages has its own characteristics:

It is almost always easier to prevent the development of a disease than to deal with its consequences later. Therefore, everyone should know how to restore the normal functioning of the kidneys and create conditions for their optimal functioning.

What can make these organs work better:

Eating the Right Foods for Optimal Kidney Function- nuts, seeds, carrots, sweet peppers, greens containing vitamin A (parsley, dill), beets, cucumbers, pumpkins, cabbage, apples, prunes, buckwheat and oatmeal, legumes, watermelon, melons.
Aromatherapy is very appropriate, it will make the kidneys work better and help get rid of excess fluid. You can do a light massage using essential oil in the kidney area - this will relieve inflammation and swelling.
Drinking enough liquid This is about 2 liters per day. Herbal infusions (rose hips, birch buds, horsetail, bearberry, corn stigmas), green tea, dried fruit compote are excellent for this. The work of the kidneys is positively affected by fruit drinks from lingonberries and cranberries, birch sap, which have a diuretic effect.
Pharmacy funds- Kanefron, Lespefril, Afala, Vitaprost, Renel, Cyston - drugs that can increase the secretory-excretory function of the kidneys.

Important! When the kidneys fail, only an experienced specialist can prescribe effective treatment based on clinical tests. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately seek help from a doctor, and not self-medicate.

Predictions for Kidney Failure

How long a person can live if the kidneys fail is a question that can be answered by knowing all the nuances of a particular case of the disease. It all depends on timely diagnosis and proper treatment. Another factor influencing life expectancy after the failure of these organs is the ailments that precede this condition. We are talking about heart attacks, diabetes, damage to blood vessels, the heart. It happens that the patient dies after kidney failure due to other diseases.

Modern medicine claims that a person suffering from this disease has a chance to survive if the treatment is aimed at eliminating the causes of the symptoms that have arisen and artificially purifying the blood (hemodialysis). There are cases when this procedure extended the life of patients by 20 years.

If the functionality of the kidney cannot be restored in a conservative way, it is necessary to transplant a donor organ. Such an operation will help a person live more than 20 years. But, despite this possibility, many people cannot perform a transplant - the probability of finding a donor is small, and most patients simply cannot afford to pay for transplantation.

Kidney failure is a disease that modern medicine can successfully fight. But this is possible only when the disease is diagnosed in time, and it is with this that there are difficulties in most cases.

Each person must understand that the possibilities of organs to recover are not unlimited. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to the occurrence of symptoms of diseases - timely noticed changes in the activity of individual organs sometimes not only prevent serious health problems, but also prolong a person's life.