It is estimated that around 7.2 million people in the UK have chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 1-5, of which around 3.5 million people have later stage CKD (stages 3-5). Uncontrolled diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure are the among the biggest causes of CKD.

CKD is a long-term condition where the kidneys work less well than they should. They cannot remove waste products from your body. Damage to the kidney’s filter system can also allow blood and protein to leak into the urine. This is not always visible but can be found with a urine test.

The term “chronic” means that it is a long-term condition and there is no cure for CKD. If however you have CKD, it does not necessarily mean your kidney damage is severe and many people are able to live with the condition. Many cases of CKD can be mild and are managed with help from your GP and without hospital involvement. It is however something that does need to be monitored to check if it is progressing towards later stage CKD.

Early Symptoms of CKD

Kidney disease is often referred to as a “silent disease” as it often does not cause symptoms when it is at an early stage. This is because the body is usually able to cope with a significant reduction in kidney function. It is for this reason that early stage CKD is often picked up as an incidental finding when carrying out routine blood or urine tests for another problem.

If early stage CKD is identified, the aim should be to start treatment with a view to slowing or stopping progression and you should be monitored to check for progress. If however abnormal renal (kidney) function test results are overlooked, this can lead to a delay in diagnosing and treating CKD and potentially allow it to progress to a later stage.

Later stages of CKD

At a later stage, symptoms can include:

• Weight loss and poor appetite
• Swollen ankles, feet or hands – as a result of water retention
• Shortness of breath
• Tiredness
• Blood in your pee
• An increased need to pee
• Difficulty sleeping
• Itchy skin

For more information on CKD, please visit the NHS link: – Chronic kidney disease – Diagnosis – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Treatment

The main treatments are: –

• Lifestyle changes – to help you stay as healthy as possible
• Medicine – to control associated problems, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol
• Dialysis – treatment to replicate some of the kidney’s functions which may be necessary in advanced (stage 5) CKD
• Kidney transplant – this may also be necessary in advanced (stage 5) CKD

If you or a loved one has experienced an avoidable delay in diagnosis or treatment of CKD, and a worse outcome has been suffered as a result of this, you may be able to bring a claim for clinical negligence.

Our skilled team has experience in successfully pursuing such claims regarding kidney disease. One such case involved a patient who was at an increased risk of developing kidney disease due to having a connective tissue disorder called Sjogren’s Syndrome.

Although the patient was under the care of rheumatologists and underwent a number of tests which indicated abnormal kidney function results, there was a failure to heed the significance of the results.

This resulted in a delay of 15 months in diagnosing the patient’s impaired kidney function and referring to the care of nephrologists (kidney specialists), by which time the patient had progressed to stage 4 CKD and was at an increased risk of progressing to stage 5, which would have necessitated dialysis or a kidney transplant. The patient was deprived of the opportunity for early treatment and suffered an acute kidney injury requiring hospitalisation.

Had it not been for the delay in diagnosis, the patient would have only progressed to stage 3 CKD, which would have had much less of an impact upon their day to day life, and avoided the acute kidney injury. As a result of the more advanced CKD, the patient suffered with tiredness, fatigue and impaired concentration, which caused difficulty at work and with everyday life, as well as suffering psychological injury.

If you have any concerns in relation to your CKD management or delay in diagnosis of CKD, please feel free to contact our medical negligence solicitors at Williamsons on 01482 323697 to discuss your concerns further.