Kidney Disease Stages | All 5 Stages Explained

There are five stages of kidney disease, and we’re gonna go through each of those stages, and this is according to the national kidney foundation.

Stage one is kidney damage with normal kidney function. That’s a GFR of 90 or higher. Stage two is kidney damage with mild loss of kidney function where your GFR is 89 to 60.

With stage three, they break it down into two separate categories. There’s stage 3A, which is mild to moderate loss of kidney function, where your GFRs would be between up 45 to 59. There’s stage 3B, which is moderate to severe loss of kidney function, where your GFRs would be between 30 to 44. Next is stage four, which is a severe loss of kidney function where you’re GFR is gonna be between 15 to 29.

Lastly there’s stage five, which is kidney failure, where your GFR is gonna be less than 15. Those are the five stages.

Doctors determine the stage of kidney disease using the glomerular filtration rate (GFR), a math formula using a person’s age, gender, and their serum creatinine level (identified through a blood test). Creatinine, a waste product that comes from muscle activity, is a key indicator of kidney function. In this video, we use GFR as a guideline to follow to determine which stage of kidney disease you are in.

With chronic kidney disease, the kidneys don’t ordinarily lose function all at once. Instead, kidney disease often progresses slowly over the course of years and different stages. If caught early, medicines and lifestyle changes may help slow or prevent CKD progression. That is why it is important to get a jump on kidney disease treatment at the beginning signs of chronic kidney disease.