3 Stages of Kidney Failure in Terms of Clinical Manifestations

Clinical manifestations of Kidney Failure can be categorized into 3 stages.

The early stage of Kidney Failure
During this stage, patients are suffering from hypertension, ischemia, sepsis or nephrotoxin, and all of which can easily cause Acute Tubular Necrosis. However, no serious damages have been caused to renal parenchyma during this time, so the symptoms are inconspicuous. In order to prevent the occurrence of Acute Tubular Necrosis, urine ordinary test and blood test are necessary for the timely detection and treatment of this disease.

Sustaining period
During this period, serious damages have been caused to renal tubular epithelial cells, with sharp decrease of GFR and more obvious clinical manifestations of Renal Failure. And these symptoms can sustain for a long time. Firstly, there is a oliguria period. Generally this symptom can last for seven to fifteen days, with some serious patients lasting for four to six weeks. For some patients, there may no oliguris symptom, and this generally indicates a promising prognosis. The symptom of oliguria stems from GRF decrease. With the further decline of renal function, more clinical symptoms will become apparent. Infection is one of the most common complications of Acute Renal Failure, and this usually causes function decline of other organs, with the mortality rate being more than 70%.

The recovery period
During this stage, the restoration of damaged intrinsic renal cells and kidney functions will be the priority. The remarkable clinical manifestation during this period is diuresis. For some patients, daily urine excretion volume can reach 3,000 to 5,000ml. This is because that filtration function of glomerulus has been restored, which leads to more water excretion, however, the restoration of renal tubular reabsorption ability is relatively delayed. Generally this symptom lasts for one to three weeks. Only few patients have some damages left to their renal structure or renal functions.