Why Patients With Nephritic Syndrome Have Edema
Patients with Nephritic Syndrome often have obvious and progressive edema. At the beginning, edema will appear in patients’ lower limbs, eyelid and face. As the edema progresses, they may have pleural effusion, ascites and pulmonary edema, etc. Some patients with severe conditions may find they can not open their eyes, or it is hard for them to breath.
Why patients with Nephritic Syndrome have edema?
The edema in patients who have kidney disease is mainly caused by three reasons. One reason is patient’s kidneys are damaged, so they can not work for patient’s body. As a result, the fluid in patients’ body can not be excreted, then much excess water will stay in their body. However, this kind of edema often appears in patients with severe kidney failure.
There are two ingredients that are the major reasons of edema in patient who has Nephritic Syndrome. The first is patient’s large amount of proteinuria, which causes the decrease of protein in patent’s blood. Because too much protein loss can cause the decline of blood plasma’s osmotic pressure, the fluid in the blood vessels will flow into the tissue space, then patient has edema.
The other major reason is the retention of water and sodium. Because large amount of protein loses through urine, the effective blood volume reduces, which causes the antidiuretic hormone increasing, so more fluid will be reabsorbed by kidney tubules. At the same time, the excretion of aldosterone will also increase, which will promote the reabsorption of sodium. As a result, the retention of fluid and sodium will aggravate the edema.
What can patient do to relieve their condition?
To relieve patient’s condition, right therapy is needed. General speaking, the doctor will use diuretics in the treatment. Diuretics can promote the excretion of fluid by urination, but it will also take much amount of potassium from the blood, so patients who has high potassium level can use the common diuretics. While patients who have normal or low potassium level should use potassium-sparing diuretic.
In patients’ diet, they should restrict the intake of sodium and water, which is useful to relieve their condition.
What’s more, the root of edema is patient’s kidney disease, so the therapy of patient’s kidney disease and the protection to his kidneys are the key to solve the problem.
Tag: Nephritic Syndrome Symptoms
