Edema: A Common Complication of Kidney Disease

Edema is a common complication in Kidney Disease. Kidney is the main organ of secreting fluid from body. When kidneys function is damaged, they can not discharge the water out of body normally thus leading to retention of water in body. Consequently, the patients with Kidney Disease will have edema.

Based on the causes of edema in Kidney Disease, the edema can be divided into nephritic edema and renal disease edema. In nephritic edema, the glomerular filtration membrane is damaged, the glomerular filtration rate declines. Therefore, the water and sodium will build up in body thus causing edema. In renal disease edema, patients lose a large amount of protein in urine. Consequently, the protein level will be lower than the normal thus leading to edema.

Edema in Kidney Disease has its characteristics. Usually the edema begins from face, especially around eyelid or face in the morning. Then the edema will spread t lower limbs and even the whole body. In most cases of renal edema, it is pitting edema. It means that when you press the edema place, there will be a pit in locality. Besides edema, the patients often have high blood pressure, proteinuria, hematuria, declined urination and so on.

Except the edema in Kidney Disease, there are also diseases that can lead to edema, like heart disease, liver disease, endocrine diseases, and malnutrition and so on. Therefore, the patients should make clear the specific cause of edema firstly and then adopt relevant treatments.

The above has listed the pathological causes of edema. We should know some cases of edema do not result from diseases. Some middle-aged women, especially some fat women, often have mild edema in their ankles before menstruation or after overwork. In this case, the edema will disappear when the menstruation period ends and have a rest for a while. Clinically, it is called idiopathic edema. If the patients have this kind of edema, they need not to worry and just have proper rest and limit the salt intake. In this way, the edema will alleviate. In addition, if the people stand, walk for too long, they may also have mild edema in lower limbs, which is called dependent edema. When they rest for a while or lie down, their edema will disappear.


Therefore, if you have edema, you should firstly find out its specific cause and then adopt corresponding treatment in time. If you or your loved ones are suffering from edema and do not what causes it, you can consult us on line or email to kidney-treatment@hotmail.com.