Why Renal Failure Have Skin Itching

Skin itching is one major symptom and discomfort among kidney failure patients especially those that are on dialysis. Other more common problems caused by kidney failure include sleep problem, depression, bone problems, restless leg syndrome.

Skin itching can be caused by a variety of factors.

Dialysis

Dialysis can cause a series of complications and side effects and one of them is itching skin. This is because dialysis can cause the skin to produce less oil. Creams and some oil-based products can help in this case. Another reason is release of histamine due to allergies that dialysis patients might experience.

Dry skin

For end stage renal disease patients, their kidneys fail to clear metabolic wastes and excessive minerals such as calcium and phosphorus in the blood. As a result, the body will naturally remove liquid in the skin to the bloodstream to cope with too high mineral level. Skin dehydration will cause itching feeling which can be alleviated after being moisturized or rehydrated.

Histamine release

Histamine is a kind of protein which will be released by the body when there is foreign materials invading the body. The skin might feel itching as an allergic reactions to histamine release. On the other hand, histamine can cause less fluid in the blood vessels and this will worsen skin dehydration. In this cases, anti-histamine medicines might help achieve instant relief.