How Long do People with Polycystic Kidney Disease(PKD) Live?

How long can PKD patients live on dialysis?It is a really difficult question to answer. Polycystic kidney disease is a chronically progressive renal disorder due to gene mutation.Symptoms in male patients are more serious than that in female patients.PKD is gene-related and can not be cured, so many patients have nothing to do, but wait for dialysis. Well, is dialysis a solution? How long can they live on dialysis?

Two main direct factors determine patients' life span: the size of the cysts and the rate of cyst enlargement.Once there are clinical symptoms, it takes more than 10 years to progress into renal failure along with continuous enlargement and increase of renal cysts in bilateral kidneys. There are about 50% PKD patients will develop renal failure at their 50s or 60s at which point dialysis and kidney transplant will be offered by the doctors.

If patients adopt correct treatment to control the growth of the cysts, it is probable for them to survive along with the cysts. Dialysis is required when PKD develops to kidney failure and according to clinical statistic, about 50% of the patients develop ESRD finally. For PKD patients with dialysis, they have different life span. Some statistics reveal that the dialysis survival rate at close to 80% through one year, 64% through two years, 33% after five years and 10% through 10 years.

For PKD patients who are on dialysis, their life span is affectable by many factors like their age, control condition of the complications, diet arrangement, treatment and living style and so on. You need not lose heart and at the same time take good care of yourself and seek early and proper therapies to help it progress more slowly so as to strive more time for more promising treatments in the future for this genetic disease.