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Kidney » Kidney Transplant

The Must-Know Types of Kidney Diseases and Their Causes

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About 26 million Americans suffer from one or the other kind of kidney diseases. Kidneys are bean-shaped organs, present in a pair, and responsible for filtering your blood, extracting toxins and extra water from it, and flushing them out of your body.


If this vital organ is diseased, your body faces an accumulation of waste which wasn’t filtered properly. The complication thus arising could range from high blood pressure, vomiting, poor sleep, and weakness to swollen ankles breathing problems, and fluid buildup in your abdomen.

The major kinds of kidney problems are either acute or chronic. However, other common ailments also contribute to wrecking up this major part of your excretory system.

Chronic Kidney Diseases

The lasting damage develops over the years, affecting your kidneys in small proportions until one day, the organ loses its functional efficiency to the point of no return. If chronic diseases aren’t dealt with on time, they could lead to end-stage renal disease and kidney failure.

Uniformly high blood pressure and diabetes that deteriorate the blood vessels around kidneys, the backward flow of urine, and congenital abnormalities are a few causes that could lead to the development of chronic kidney diseases.  Several cases of renal diseases have also reported no apparent cause behind the symptoms and complications.

Once the kidneys are functionally impaired, doctors will put you on dialysis. This mechanical procedure will help you extracting all the waste and fluid out of your blood, something your body is no longer able to do by itself. Further damage to the organ which indicates renal failure will qualify you for a transplant.

Acute Kidney Disease

If your kidneys face abrupt damage and immediately plummet to significantly reduced functional efficiency, that’s acute disease. Drug abuse, radioactive dye, severe infection, blood flow obstruction, backed up urine, and an enlarged prostate are a few reasons that could lead to acute kidney damage.


Your kidneys have small structures called glomeruli which are made up of tiny blood vessels. Glomeruli help in filtering the blood as well as removal of excess waste. Glomerulonephritis is a condition where the glomeruli get inflamed, and their functional capability reduces.

Glomerulonephritis could become life-threatening in cases where the kidney stops functioning altogether, leading to organ failure. While acute and sudden Glomerulonephritis can be fatal, the chronic one is a grave illness that requires immediate medical care.

Polycystic Kidney Disease

In this inherited disorder, clusters of fluid-filled sacs develop within the kidneys. The organ enlarges because of the ever-growing cysts and loses functionality over time. Polycystic kidney disease has severe complications, high BP, and renal failure, for instance.

Urinary Tract Infections

UTIs could develop because of various reasons, kidney stones being one of them. They are the result of wounds inside the urethra or urinary bladder that get infected. UTIs are treatable. However, if left undiagnosed, the infection can go up the urinary tract to the kidney, affect it, and may lead to renal failure in the absence of proper medical help.

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