How long can someone live with stage IV renal failure

Chronic renal failure can be divided into four stages: renal compensatory period(creatinine 133~177 umol/L), nephropathy azotemia period(186~442 umol/L), kidney failure period(451~707 umol/L), uremia period(creatinine is greater than 707 umol/L).

Uremia is IV stage of renal failure, which is also called end stage of renal disease, the glomerular filtration rate of uremia patients is less than 10-15 ml/min. The patients with uremia will experience multiple viscera or tissue damages, especially in gastrointestinal tract, angiocarpy, central nervous system. It may induce a threat to life eventually.

In this case, how long can someone live with stage IV renal failure becomes a question that the patients with uremia concern most.

In the field of western medicine, uremia patients are usually suggested to receive dialysis or kidney transplantation, both of them can bring plenty of complications include dialysis disequilibrium syndrome, infection, weakened immunity, tumor, etc.

In clinical trials, dialysis extended patients' lives by only ten years, on average. Besides, the patients rely on dialysis can not get rid of suffering treatment all their life.


Kidney transplantation can end up the patient's illness directly, but the rejection reaction and various kinds of complications will increase the patients’ mortality. The service life of donor kidney is about 5~6 years, once the donor kidney have used up, the patient should seek for a new kidney to maintain their life.