Causes of Edema in Kidney Cysts

Edema in the whole body is one of the most common symptoms in kidney cysts and it will bring a lot of inconvenience and discomforts to the patients. Therefore it is very important to know the causes of edema in kidney cysts so that more effective treatment can be taken according to different causes of the edema. In the following article, I will give a list of the causes of edema in renal cysts.
1. Retention of water and sodium. It is the most common in glomerulonephritis. Under normal circumstances, almost 99% of the water and sodium filtered by the glomeruli can be re-absorbed by the renal tubules. While in case of renal cysts, the glomerular filtration ability is reduced while the re-absorption ability of the renal tubules remains normal, thus leading to retention of water and sodium.
2. Hypoproteinemia. In case of renal cysts, the permeability of the glomerular basement membrane will increase and large amount of protein will be leaked into the urine. This will cause the decreased plasma protein concentration and plasma osmotic pressure, so the fluids will penetrate from the blood vessels to the tissues that are high in protein, thus leading to edema.
3. Liver damages. Patients that suffer from serious kidney damages usually have the complications of liver damage which is another cause of edema.
4. Other complications. This condition is more common in chronic renal insufficiency and end-stage renal failure. Renal cyst patients will suffer from anemia and as a result the secretion of renin will increase and cause hypertension. Anemia, hypertension, retention of metabolic wastes as well as the decreased immunity will cause heart damage which in turn is the cause of edema.
5. The use of hormones. When the kidneys are damaged by the cysts, there will be changes in the secretion of endocrines, for example there will be the increase of aldosterone and estrogen which will cause the retention of water and sodium and further aggravate renal edema.
There are many other factors that can cause edema besides the above mentioned factors. Therefore it is very important to first make clear the real cause of edema and then the treatments can be more targeted and effective.
Though edema is very common and most patients tend to neglect it. Long term edema can cause a lot of damages to the patients, the earlier the treatment is received, the better the curative effect will be.