Is diabetic nephropathy dialysis painful?

Written by Zhou Qi
Nephrology
Updated on January 25, 2025
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Whether it is diabetes, nephritis, high blood pressure, or other causes leading to kidney failure, it may eventually progress to uremia. Patients with such conditions need dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. Generally, patients undergoing any type of dialysis do not experience significant pain symptoms.

Dialysis can be divided into hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, both of which use artificial methods to remove metabolic waste from the patient's body and maintain the stability of the internal environment. These methods generally do not involve significant traumatic procedures, so they mostly do not cause notable pain. However, patients undergoing hemodialysis may need temporary needling each time, which causes minimal trauma and typically does not result in severe pain or significant discomfort.

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Nephrology
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Is diabetic nephropathy with facial swelling serious?

Patients with diabetic nephropathy who experience facial swelling should not use this symptom as a basis for judging the severity of their condition. Diabetic nephropathy is divided into five stages. The condition is relatively mild during the first three stages. By the fourth stage, patients begin to exhibit significant proteinuria, and by the fifth stage, they experience severe renal failure. Conditions in these last two stages are quite severe. However, patients might also experience facial swelling during the first three stages, and while the likelihood of facial swelling increases during the fourth and fifth stages, some patients in these stages might not show obvious edema. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the severity of the condition based solely on swelling. Patients need to undergo 24-hour urinary protein quantification and blood tests to assess kidney function in order to judge the severity of their condition.

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Written by Zhou Qi
Nephrology
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Late-stage symptoms of diabetic nephropathy

When patients with diabetic nephropathy reach the advanced stage, they actually already have severe renal failure. Prior to this, patients generally exhibit noticeable proteinuria. Continued progression of the disease will lead to the destruction of most of the renal tissues, causing renal failure. This condition is quite serious; patients often experience significant edema, even severe generalized edema. The accumulation of a large amount of fluid in the body leads to an increase in blood volume, and both the preload and afterload on the heart increase, often accompanied by symptoms of heart failure. When patients experience heart failure, they may find it impossible to lie flat and may experience chest tightness, shortness of breath, and difficulty breathing after activity, potentially endangering their lives.

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Written by Zhou Qi
Nephrology
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Can diabetic nephropathy patients eat kelp?

Patients with diabetic nephropathy should avoid eating seafood, including various types of sea fish, shellfish, as well as seaweed, kelp, and so on. This is because these seafood products contain a certain amount of purines, and some foods have a high purine content. When purines enter the human body, they are metabolized and eventually converted into uric acid, which needs to be excreted by the kidneys. Patients with kidney disease have decreased ability to excrete uric acid, and the accumulation of uric acid may cause further damage to the kidneys and also affect the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems. Therefore, generally speaking, it is advised that patients with diabetic nephropathy should avoid eating kelp. However, if the patient’s condition is in the early stages and kidney function is still normal, consuming some kelp in moderation generally should not be a problem, but it should not be consumed in large amounts.

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Nephrology
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Early symptoms of diabetic nephropathy

The early symptoms of diabetic nephropathy primarily include the presence of microalbuminuria, which is characterized by an albumin excretion rate of 30 to 300 mg per 24 hours, or a ratio of albumin to creatinine in spot urine ranging from 30 to 300 mg/g. However, this value needs to be tested three times over six months, with at least two of these tests meeting the above criteria for a diagnosis. Additionally, in the early stages of diabetes, patients' blood pressure tends to be within the normal range, but there is a trend toward elevation. Some patients may experience changes in the diurnal rhythm of their blood pressure, and the glomerular filtration rate may slightly increase or remain within the normal range.

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Is early diabetic nephropathy reversible?

Diabetic nephropathy clinically mainly manifests as an increase in urine protein on routine urine tests. Thus, diabetic nephropathy can be classified into different stages. In the early stages, microalbuminuria appears, and at this early phase, diabetic nephropathy is actually reversible. However, if the condition progresses with significant proteinuria, it becomes difficult to reverse diabetic nephropathy through intervention treatments. Most clinical patients may experience a slight reduction in urine protein or maintain this condition long-term without further progression. However, some patients have already experienced an increase in creatinine levels by the time they reach this stage of diabetic nephropathy, making it particularly challenging to reverse the condition once creatinine levels rise. Therefore, for diabetic nephropathy, early detection and treatment are crucial, with the most important goal being the prevention of the disease's onset.