What is Acute Renal Failure and what can cause it

Acute Renal Failure has a narrow and a broad sense. In the narrow sense, Acute Renal Failure refers to acute tubular necrosis. In the broad, Acute Renal Failure is a clinical syndrome caused by various kinds of diseases. For patients suffering from Acute Renal Failure, their renal function may decline within a short time (several days and even hours), the metabolic product of nitrogen accumulates in body and electrolyte and water lose balance. Usually, the patients have oliguria and even anuria, but some patients may not have these symptoms. The most obvious characteristics of Acute Renal Failure is progressively increasing creatinine level and its level can increase by 1~2 mg/dl per day and the urea nitrogen level can increase by 10~30 mg/dl.

Clinically, the causes of Acute Renal Failure include: prerenal factors, renal factors and postrenal factors.

1. Prerenal factors: it refers to Renal Failure caused by insufficient blood supplement, poor blood circulation. Usually, it is caused by the following causes: A: decreased blood volume: various kinds of massive haemorrhage, the loss of body fluid in gastrointestinal tract, seepage caused by burn and trauma, circulation failure and shock caused by ichorrhemia. B: cardiogenic shock: serious myocardosis, miocardial infarction, arrhythmia and cardiac tamponade. C: hypotension-shock caused by druganasthesia and spinal cord injury.

2. Renal factors: A: acute tubula r necrosis. B: Glomerularnephritis caused by connective tissue disease. C: renal blood vessels diseases. D: Allergic Acute Interstitial Nephritis, Acute Interstitial Nephritis. E: renal papillary necrosis: it is caused by Diabetes or urinary tract obstruction combined with infection. F: nephrotoxin: it is caused by medicines, contrast medium, diamorphine and so on.

3. Postrenal factors: prostatic hypertrophy, stone in urinary tract, tumor.

For patients with Acute Renal Failure, they should firstly find the specific causes of their disease and then receive relative treatment in time. If so, they will be able to improve their renal function effectively.