PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease) is a chronic disorder that the numerous
fluid-filled cysts will hamper the kidney function. Up to now, no complete cure
is available all over the world. In western methods, the main way of dealing
with PKD is by medicines, surgeries, dialysis and kidney transplant. I will
introduce them separately.
Western medicines
Western medicines can treat PKD symptomatically. If the cysts rupture,
antibiotics are usually prescribed by your doctors. For those who are
experiencing pain due to the enlarged kidneys, pain killers might be your only
choice to ease the pain. However, PKD patient should try the best to avoid the
pain killers because it can cause great stress to the weaker kidney more. Blood
pressure medication can be adopted to regulate your hypertension. Urinary tract
infection should be treated in the first place to prevent the infection from
spreading to the cyst.
Surgeries
The laparoscopic cyst unroofing is commonly used to deal with Polycystic
Kidney Disease. Indeed surgeries can remove the bigger cysts and relieve the
symptoms very quickly. However, because of the gene problems, the cysts will
grow up in a short time. Worse than that, each surgery will cause harm on the
weakened kidneys. That is why most PKD patients are not recommended to perform
surgeries.
Dialysis
When kidneys fail, most patients will have to undergo dialysis (which can be
both hemo- and peritoneal). The condition when patients need to have dialysis
varies. Every patient is different, and while some patients need dialysis
intervention at say, 5mg/dL (creatinine level), some can hold off until 9mg/dL.
The other factors can depend on your age, race, and gender. However, dialysis is
not a treatment for PKD, and it can not repair the kidney damage.
Kidney Transplant
When PKD patients’ GFR is lower than 10, most of them will be recommended to
be on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. You may be listed on various
hospitals but still hard to find a donor. Infection and bleeding are the most
common complications of kidney transplant. It is very difficult to deal with the
rejection problems. Ten years survival rate is very low for a transplanted
kidney. Some studies show suggest that the longer a patient is on dialysis
before the transplant, the less time the kidney will last.
