Chronic Kidney Disease

• Signs and symptoms may include any of  the following:
  
• High blood pressure
  
• Decreased urine output or no urine output
  
• Darkly coloured urine
  
• Anaemia
  
• Nausea or vomiting
  
• Loss of appetite
  
• Sudden weight change
  
• A general sense of discomfort and unease (malaise)
  
• Fatigue and weakness
  
• Muscle twitches and cramps
  
• Swelling of the feet and ankles 
  
• Yellowish-brown cast to your skin
  
• Persistent itching
  

Staff in the Division are skilled at evaluation for various diseases of the kidney and urinary tract. These conditions include haematuria (blood in the urine), proteinuria (protein in the urine), other urine abnormalities, high blood pressure, diabetic nephropathy (kidney involvement due to diabetes), glomerulonephritis (like IgA, lupus-related renal diseases) electrolyte disorders, kidney stones, cysts and urinary tract infections to name a few.

Patients with kidney failure at various stages can also be evaluated for the cause of kidney failure and prognosis in a holistic disease management based manner. Patients are evaluated through the use of laboratory tests, radiographic and ultrasound scans and where appropriate, real-time ultrasound-guided kidney biopsy patients are also provided medical and dietary therapy to slow progression of kidney disease. Patients with worsening kidney function are counselled on their treatment options.

We provide evidence-based treatment for kidney diseases in all its stages and treat kidney failure using various modalities of renal replacement therapy, including acute dialysis, haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplantation.

Patients with end-stage kidney failure who opt for long-term haemodialysis will receive comprehensive treatment including dietary counseling, hypertension control, evaluation and management of cardiac risk factors, anemia and renal bone disease.

The Division also operates a chronic haemodialysis centre for stable patients (the NUH Dialysis Centre at a satellite location at the Singapore Labour Foundation Building on Thomson Road). We also provide selective high dependency haemodialysis for those patients with high cardiovascular risk who are often deemed unsuitable for haemodialysis in Singapore. 

Kidney transplantation is an important form of treatment for kidney failure and can be performed for suitable patients even without embarking on dialysis (pre-emptive transplant).

Our programme offers evaluation of patients with kidney failure for suitability for transplantation, evaluation of potential donors for suitability to donate and coordinates the pre- and post-transplant care of transplant patients and donors. Staff together with kidney transplant surgeons, other specialists and transplant coordinators provides long-term care for transplant patients.

A number of milestone transplants have been successfully conducted at NUHS: the first Asian combined bone marrow and kidney transplant, the second ABO (blood group) incompatible transplant in Singapore, as well a number of high-risk complicated cases.