Chronic kidney disease (CKD) occurs when there is damage to your kidneys, and they are unable to filter out wastes from the body. Treatment varies depending on the particular cause of the CKD. Hence, you can have it treated with different medications like diuretics to lower fluid and swelling, treatment to regulate hypertension, or supplements to control anaemia.
Other chronic kidney disease treatments include statin prescriptions to reduce cholesterol levels or medications to prevent blood vessel calcification. This article further discusses various treatments for chronic kidney disease and how patients can benefit from the remedies.
Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease
There's no particular medicine designed to treat chronic kidney disease. However, various treatments can help control different problems that magnify the condition. Therefore, depending on an individual patient's complications, treatment for CKD might include any of the following:
1. Drugs for Chronic Kidney Disease
Chronic kidney disease treatment begins with the following drugs:
- ACE inhibitors or Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) help regulate blood pressure.
- Water pills or diuretics to eliminate excess fluid from your body.
- Calcitriol and vitamin D supplements to prevent bone loss.
- Phosphate binders help eliminate excess phosphate from your blood.
- Drugs to reduce extra levels of cholesterol in your body.
- Erythropoietin (EPO) helps build up red blood cells for the anaemic.
2. Kidney Dialysis
If a patient is at an end-stage kidney disease, the healthcare professionals consider other options like dialysis. Without such treatment alternatives, CKD can result in complete kidney failure. This can lead to death if left untreated.
Dialysis treatment uses machines to eliminate waste from your body. It's the only option when your kidneys can no longer perform these essential functions:
- Filter waste from the blood
- Filter excess fluid from the body
- Filter salt from the body
The two main types of dialysis include:
- Hemodialysis- Blood circulates through the machine that removes excess salt, water, and waste products. The clean blood then returns to your body. Here, patients need around 4-hour treatment, done thrice a week.
- Peritoneal dialysis- The doctor places a solution into your abdomen using a catheter. This solution sucks up waste, which then gets eliminated through the same catheter. Afterwards, the practitioner adds a fresh solution to carry on the cleaning process. The process can also involve using a machine that automatically fills, eliminates, and refills the fluid.
3. Kidney Transplant
A kidney transplant is one of the treatments doctors consider at the very end stage of chronic kidney disease. The practitioner replaces the unhealthy kidney with a healthy one from the donor. The donors could be family members, friends, or even other volunteers. Fortunately, the kidney donor can continue living healthily with one functioning kidney.