About 80% of chronic kidney disease patients suffer from uremic itching. International St. Mary’s Hospital
The number of chronic kidney disease patients is 249,000 (2019), which has increased by 19,000 each year in the last five years. Also, about 100,000 of them are receiving dialysis treatment.
Dialysis treatment refers to treatment (hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis) that artificially filters out body wastes on behalf of the kidneys of individuals who cannot function properly due to chronic kidney disease.
Dialysis patients are bound to deteriorate their quality of life due to the fact that they have to be carried out regularly in a hospital or at home, and there is a point to be careful about. In addition, dialysis patients suffer from various complications such as anemia, malnutrition, lethargy, and itching during the dialysis process.
In particular, itching is easy to regard as insignificant, but it is one of the complications that lower the quality of life that many dialysis patients suffer.
Sung-jin Moon, a professor of nephrology at the Catholic Kwandong University International St.
Uretoxin (尿毒) refers to the accumulation of waste products in the body that must be excreted in the urine because the kidneys are not functioning properly. Urinary toxicity The cause of itching is known as uremia, chronic inflammation, and nerve cell damage caused by hyperparathyroidism. In addition, an increase in eosinophils, one of the white blood cells in the blood, can also be a cause.
In addition, it is important to accurately identify the cause of itching because there are various causes such as other skin diseases, cirrhosis of the liver, electrolyte abnormalities, and drug side effects.
There are no visible skin changes in the early stage of uremic itching. However, if the symptoms are chronically severe, sores or scars can form from scratches, which leads to more itching, leading to a vicious cycle.
Professor Moon said, “The first treatment for uremic itching begins with applying a moisturizer consistently so that the skin does not dry out, and this is the most important.” He said, “You have to receive hemodialysis treatment three times a week to keep blood urinary toxicity low and to keep phosphorus and parathyroid hormone levels in line with the target level.”
If the symptoms of itching do not improve even with this conservative treatment, you can control the symptoms by looking for other causes of itching and performing △ taking medication △ applying steroid ointment △ light therapy.
Kwon Dae-ik Medical journalist [email protected]
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