Diabetic nephropathy

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Diabetic nephropathy

Male urinary system

Pancreas and kidneys

Urinary tract and other infections are common and can be treated with appropriate antibiotics.

Dialysis may be necessary once end-stage renal disease develops. At this stage, a kidney transplant must be considered. Another option for type 1 diabetes patients is a combined kidney-pancreas transplant.

Once large amounts of protein begin to appear in the urine or the serum creatinine begins to rise, diabetic nephropathy typically continues to slowly worsen.

Complications of chronic kidney failure are more likely to occur earlier, and progress more rapidly, when it is caused by diabetes than other causes. Even after dialysis or transplantation, people with diabetes tend to do worse than those without diabetes.

Possible complications include:

• Anemia
• Chronic kidney failure (rapidly gets worse)
• Dialysis complications
• End-stage kidney disease
• Hyperkalemia
• Severe hypertension
• Hypoglycemia
• Infections
• Kidney transplant complications
• Peritonitis (if peritoneal dialysis used)

Call your health care provider if your health care provider if you have diabetes and a routine urinalysis shows protein.

Call your health care provider if you develop symptoms of diabetic nephropathy, or if new symptoms develop, including little or no urine output.

Review Date: 11/30/2006
Reviewed By: David M. Charytan, M.D., M.Sc., Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.