Doctor: What symptoms in the body should alert you to uremia?

Today, I went to the dialysis room for a consultation. I felt bad when I saw patients with uremia undergoing dialysis. I even found that there were many young girls in their 20s among them. So today, I want to talk to you about uremia. What symptoms should you be "alert" to uremia?

More and more people are on dialysis

What is uremia? In fact, uremia is not a simple disease, but a series of syndromes. The kidney is the excretory organ of the human body. When the kidney function fails, the "waste" in the human body cannot be excreted, resulting in water, electrolyte, and acid-base metabolism disorders.

This kind of kidney failure is often irreversible, so some people are afraid of uremia and even compare it with cancer. In fact, there is no need to worry. Uremia is not cancer and it can be treated.

What causes uremia? Uremia is the final stage of kidney failure, so any behavior that damages kidney function can lead to uremia.

Poor control of chronic diseases

With the improvement of living standards, more and more people are suffering from chronic diseases such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids. A large number of patients cannot take medication regularly as required by doctors, so blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids are always unregulated. These chronic diseases often lead to lesions in small blood vessels, and renal blood vessels are one of them. Renal blood vessels degenerate and necrotize, leading to a decline in renal function or even failure, until the occurrence of uremia.

Genetic factors

Some kidney diseases are genetically susceptible, the most typical of which is polycystic kidney disease. In addition, people with a family history of kidney disease are more likely to suffer from chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease, and uremia is the end stage of chronic kidney disease.

Urinary system diseases

Urinary system diseases can also damage kidney function if not diagnosed and treated in time, the most common of which are urinary stones and urinary tract infections. Among them, urinary system infections can retrograde to the kidneys, thereby causing kidney damage and leading to renal insufficiency.

Misuse of antibiotics

Many antibiotics are nephrotoxic. If used for a long time or in large doses, they can easily affect kidney function and even cause kidney failure.

What symptoms should alert you to uremia? Digestive tract symptoms

Loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting are the most typical digestive tract symptoms. Some patients also experience diarrhea, oral ulcers, and urine odor in their breath.

Psychiatric symptoms

Some patients with uremia will experience mental symptoms in the early stages, ranging from mild fatigue, insomnia, and inattention to severe depression, drowsiness, coma, etc.

Anemia

The kidneys produce erythropoietin. When renal function declines or even fails, the secretion of EPO is limited, causing renal anemia.

Abnormal urine output

Abnormal urine volume is divided into polyuria and oliguria. As the kidney is an excretory organ, urine volume directly reflects the state of renal function. Chronic renal impairment often leads to increased nocturia, while when renal function is completely lost, the patient will be in a state of oliguria or anuria.

Skin manifestations

Toxins cannot be completely excreted from the body and are deposited in the body, which can easily cause the skin to dry and desquamate. After some urea is excreted from the sweat glands, it can irritate the skin and cause itching.

How to treat uremia? Hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplantation are known as the three pillars of uremia treatment.

Hemodialysis

Hemodialysis, commonly known as kidney dialysis, uses a filtering method to excrete metabolic waste and harmful toxins from the body, purifies the blood through special machines, and then returns the blood to the body, thus playing the role of the kidneys.

Peritoneal dialysis

The basic principles of peritoneal dialysis are similar to those of hemodialysis, except that peritoneal dialysis involves injecting a liquid called "peritoneal dialysis fluid" into the abdominal cavity. Metabolic waste and excess water in the human body will infiltrate into the peritoneal dialysis fluid. When this is repeated several times, it will play the role of the kidneys.

Kidney transplantation

Since the kidneys are not working, we can transplant a good kidney into the patient through surgery. The replacement kidney can work normally and the patient does not need hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis.

How to prevent the occurrence of uremia? Pay attention to chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and regularly check kidney function

The use of medications for treatment should be standardized, and random medications should be avoided to avoid damage to kidney function due to drug nephrotoxicity;

Live a regular life, improve immunity and avoid nephritis

Healthy diet, balanced nutrition, and drinking plenty of water are all helpful in maintaining good kidney function.