Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jul 28;13(8):527.
doi: 10.3390/toxins13080527.

Chronic Kidney Disease-Associated Pruritus

Puneet Agarwal  1 , Vinita Garg  2 , Priyanka Karagaiah  3 , Jacek C Szepietowski  4 , Stephan Grabbe  5 , Mohamad Goldust  5
Affiliations
Review

Chronic Kidney Disease-Associated Pruritus

Puneet Agarwal et al. Toxins (Basel). .

Abstract

Pruritus is a distressing condition associated with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), as well as maintenance dialysis and adversely affects the quality of life (QOL) of these patients. It has been reported to range from 20% to as high as 90%. The mechanism of CKD-associated pruritus (CKD-aP) has not been clearly identified, and many theories have been proposed to explain it. Many risk factors have been found to be associated with CKD-aP. The pruritus in CKD presents with diverse clinical features, and there are no set features to diagnose it.The patients with CKD-aP are mainly treated by nephrologists, primary care doctors, and dermatologists. Many treatments have been tried but nothing has been effective. The search of literature included peer-reviewed articles, including clinical trials and scientific reviews. Literature was identified through March 2021, and references of respective articles and only articles published in the English language were included.

Keywords: chronic kidney disease; end-stage renal disease; pruritus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Etiological factors contributing to uremic pruritus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Patel T.S., Freedman B.I., Yosipovitch G. An Update on Pruritus Associated With CKD. Am. J. Kidney Dis. 2007;50:11–20. doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2007.03.010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rayner H.C., Larkina M., Wang M., Graham-Brown M., Van Der Veer S.N., Ecder T., Hasegawa T., Kleophas W., Bieber B.A., Tentori F., et al. International Comparisons of Prevalence, Awareness, and Treatment of Pruritus in People on Hemodialysis. Clin. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 2017;12:2000–2007. doi: 10.2215/CJN.03280317. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shirazian S., Aina O., Park Y., Chowdhury N., Leger K., Hou L., Miyawaki N., Mathur V.S. Chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus: Impact on quality of life and current management challenges. Int. J. Nephrol. Renov. Dis. 2017;10:11–26. doi: 10.2147/IJNRD.S108045. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pisoni R.L., Wikström B., Elder S.J., Akizawa T., Asano Y., Keen M.L., Saran R., Mendelssohn D.C., Young E.W., Port F.K. Pruritus in haemodialysis patients: International results from the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS) Nephrol. Dial. Transplant. 2006;21:3495–3505. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfl461. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kimata N., Fuller D.S., Saito A., Akizawa T., Fukuhara S., Pisoni R.L., Robinson B.M., Akiba T. Pruritus in hemodialysis patients: Results from the Japanese Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (JDOPPS) Hemodial. Int. 2014;18:657–667. doi: 10.1111/hdi.12158. - DOI - PubMed