Tratamento da doença renal crônica: estratégias para o maior envolvimento do paciente em seu auto-cuidado / Chronic kidney disease treatment: strategies for increasing the patients participation in self-care
Simple and cost-effective laboratorial parameters can be used by the clinical practitioner for screening and diagnosing chronic kidney disease (CKD). The importance of diagnosing CKD, still in early stages, lies in the possibility of delaying progression of the disease, postponing the beginning of renal replacement therapy, and therefore, improving the patients quality of life and lowering costs of the public health care system. In addition, early detection of CKD allows for better control of the disturbances commonly developed as renal function decreases. However, an important proportion of patients are referred to the nephrologists only when the kidney function is markedly decreased. Even considering this late referral, treatment before the beginning of renal replacement therapy allows for better control of the patients overall clinical state. Such treatment can achieve better results when a multidisciplinary team is present. This is particularly important when considering multiple aspects of CKD and the low adherence of the patients to the treatment of chronic diseases in general. Accordingly, this study proposes a series of strategies to enhance the patients adherence to the treatment and, ultimately, improve the results and patient outcome.