Analgesic Nephropathy

Abstract

Classic analgesic nephropathy is a slowly progressive disease resulting from the daily use for many years of mixtures containing at least two antipyretic analgesics and usually caffeine or codeine (or both), which may lead to psychological dependence. The nephropathy is characterized by renal papillary necrosis and chronic interstitial nephritis, with an insidious progression to renal failure, sometimes in association with transitional-cell carcinoma of the uroepithelium.¹⁴ In the early stages of the disease, the clinical symptoms are limited to polyuria, sometimes associated with sterile pyuria, and renal colic that is occasionally associated with acute renal failure due to bilateral obstruction . . .