Why kidney failure is still hard to detect

BY MICHAEL ORIEDO

There are several triggers of kidney failure. Some occur due to injury, while others develop due to complications from diabetes, prostate cancer and kidney stones.

Medics list kidney failure in three categories: pre-renal, renal and post-renal.

Under pre-renal, the causes are due to decreased water or blood supply to the kidneys.

These include, hypovolemia, that is, a condition where by there is low blood volume in the body due to excessive blood loss.

Dehydration, poor intake of fluids and medication such as water pills are listed as other pre-renal causes of kidney failure.

Renal causes involve direct damage to the kidneys. Medics call it sepsis, where by the body’s immune system is overwhelmed from infection and causes inflammation and shutdown of the kidneys.

Some drugs, particularly antibiotics, get toxic and harm kidneys, causing them to fail.

Post-renal causes, on the other hand, affect the outflow of urine from the body.

The causes include obstruction of the bladder or the ureters, which results in back pressure because the kidneys continue to produce urine.

The obstruction acts like a dam, and urine backs up into the kidneys. When pressure increases, the kidneys shut down.

Medics say kidney failure has no identifiable symptoms in the beginning. But as the condition advances, there are manifest symptoms such as exhaustion, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, dark urine, facial puffiness and swelling of body parts.