What are polycystic kidneys and kidney cysts?

  Adult polycystic kidney disease is a familial dominant disease, and is one of the common diseases that cause chronic renal failure and uremia. When the cyst grows to a certain stage, the tiny pathways connecting the cyst and kidney are blocked by tissue proliferation, and the fluid inside the cyst cannot be eliminated and gradually increases in size. The cysts compress the kidney tissue, resulting in atrophy and hardening of tubules, disappearance of glomeruli and impairment of kidney function. Kidney cyst species vary in size from the size of a soybean to the size of an egg, and when abnormally growing cysts squeeze the surrounding kidney tissues, they cause normal kidney tissues to lose their functions, resulting in renal hypofunction, chronic renal failure, and even uremia. Cysts not only invade the kidney, but also the liver and pancreas, so patients with polycystic kidney are often found to have polycystic liver as well. Treatment mostly adopts puncture decompression therapy, but it cannot cure polycystic kidney. Since there is no effective treatment, it depends on controlling blood pressure, prohibiting nephrotoxic drugs, protecting kidney function and activating blood circulation to slow down the progression of the disease. Simple renal cysts are very common in adults and change slowly in nature, only a small part of them change, mainly a small change in number, followed by a mild increase in size, but a few cysts shrink. Simple renal cysts are usually asymptomatic and are often found incidentally during ultrasound or CT of the kidney for physical examination or other purposes. Kidney cysts can present with hematuria or localized back pain, or secondary infection, but rarely will kidney failure. Small kidney cysts with no symptoms do not need to be treated. When the cyst is larger than 5~6 cm or more, puncture and injection of sclerotherapy can be considered.