Polycystic Kidney Disease

Polycystic Kidney Disease is an inherited kidney disease, whereby the abnormal genes causing the disease are passed down from the parents to their offspring.

The symptoms of Polycystic Kidney Disease include:

• Blood in the urine
• High blood pressure
• Pain in the back and sides
• Upper abdominal pain associated with liver and pancreatic cysts
• Urinary tract infections

There is currently no cure for Polycystic Kidney Disease. The treatment options available aim at managing your symptoms and the complications associated with this disease. Depending on your existing condition, your doctor will suggest the treatment that suits you best. These include:

• High blood pressure control and management to delay the development of the disease, and prevent subsequent kidney damage
• Increasing fluid intake to help dilute urine and therefore avoid the incidence of blood in the urine
• Kidney dialysis or kidney transplant if your kidneys fail to remove excess fluid and waste from the body
• Management or surgical removal of brain aneurysms to avoid aneurysm rupture and bleeding if you suffer from brain aneurysms (balloon-like bulge in the walls of brain arteries)
• Pain killers to alleviate the chronic back and sides pain, which is a very common symptom of Polycystic Kidney Disease
• Surgery to drain cysts if they are causing you severe pain or blocking other organs and blood vessels
• Treatment of urinary tract infection using appropriate antibiotics