What Does Renal Insufficiency Mean?

Causes and Treatments of Renal Insufficiency

Common causes of renal insufficiency include kidney diseases such as glomerulonephritis, renal tuberculosis, pyelonephritis, kidney tumors, and congenital kidney diseases. Secondly, renal insufficiency can also be caused by extra-renal diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and urinary stones. Therefore, it is important to understand the causes of renal insufficiency in order to carry out reasonable treatment. Let's take a look at what renal insufficiency means.

What is Renal Insufficiency?

The function of the kidneys is to excrete metabolic waste, regulate the water-electrolyte balance and acid-base balance in the body. When various factors lead to renal damage, the glomerular filtration rate decreases, and the excretory function of the kidneys diminishes, which is referred to as renal insufficiency. The causes of renal insufficiency can generally be divided into renal parenchymal, pre-renal, and post-renal causes. Renal parenchymal causes mainly include various primary or secondary glomerulonephritis, tubulointerstitial nephritis, while post-renal causes are mainly due to various reasons leading to urinary tract obstruction. Pre-renal causes are mainly due to various reasons leading to renal ischemia, which can clinically manifest as edema, hypertension, metabolic acidosis, hyperkalemia, oliguria, and even anuria.

Can Renal Insufficiency Be Cured?

1. General treatment: Identify the causes of acute renal insufficiency as much as possible and take timely measures to eliminate them, such as relieving urinary tract obstruction, removing nephrotoxic substances, and treating nephritis. During the compensatory phase of renal insufficiency, active treatment of the primary disease should be carried out to prevent the development of uremia. During the azotemia phase, in addition to treating the underlying disease, it is necessary to reduce workload, avoid cold, dampness, and excessive fatigue, prevent colds, and avoid using kidney-damaging drugs. For patients with uremia symptoms, rest and treatment should be provided.

2. Chinese medicine therapy: One of the therapies for renal disease in Chinese medicine is Yunhuo Huoshen therapy, which can effectively repair renal insufficiency and uremia, help repair the glomerulus, prevent further damage to the glomerulus, and regulate and repair the body's function of excreting metabolic waste and regulating water-electrolyte and acid-base balance.

3. Correction of metabolic acidosis: Mild metabolic acidosis can be improved by correcting water and electrolyte imbalance. Sodium bicarbonate can also be used, with a daily dosage of 4-8g taken in 2-4 divided doses. During the polyuria phase, attention should be paid to replenishing fluids and electrolytes such as potassium and sodium to prevent dehydration, hypokalemia, and hyponatremia.

4. Dietary therapy: There should be a reasonable intake of protein. Metabolic products in the human body mainly come from protein components in the diet. Therefore, in order to reduce the workload of the remaining kidneys, protein intake must be adapted to the excretory capacity of the kidneys.