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Health Risks of Kidney Failure

As of 1993, over 150,000 people are on dialysis (Gutch, ix). The focus today is not only on improving dialysis equipment and procedures, but to better understand the patient aspects of renal failure. Kidney failure has many causes including infections, cancer, and polycystic disease. End stage renal failure is characterized by less than 15-20% of normal nephron function that results in the accumulation of hazardous waste products. The state of kidney failure is termed uremic syndrome and includes a variety of symptoms. The symptoms may include:

loss of tissue mass

reduced total body potassium

slightly increased sodium level

higher proportion of extracellular fluid

hypertension

increased chance of coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease

abnormal glucose metabolism

elevated lipoprotein level

decrease in essential polypeptides

Anemia and reduced white blood cell count

Increased risk of infection due to malnutrition and immune system defects

nausea

gastrointestinal bleeding

constipation

fatigue, anxiety, depression

burning or weakness in the muscles of the limbs

osteitis fibrosa and osteomalacia

bone pain and increased risk of fracture

All of the above symptoms can be controlled with adequate dialysis. In order to minimize the occurrence of these syptoms, it is important that dialysis patients receive the proper dialyis treatment. Models such as the one developed in this site can be used as a tool to investigate the amount of dialysis required. The measure of dialysis effectiveness is commonly the urea concentration. Increased urea concentration correlates well with an elevated level of other waste products that create the symptoms listed above and illustrated in the diagram below.
It is also important for people with kidney disease that are not on dialysis to understand the considerations they must give to these health risks. If some kidney function is present, monitoring diet and exercise level may help in alleviating some of these symptoms.