How is acute glomerulonephritis treated?
The treatment for acute glomerulonephritis is primarily supportive: diuretics to reduce the edema and antihypertensive drugs to reduce elevated blood pressure.
Anti-inflammatory therapy with corticosteroids, cytotoxic agents, and other classes of immunosuppressive agents is used for some etiologies of acute glomerulonephritis.
Therapeutic approaches for acute glomerulonephritis due to systemic lupus nephritis and the pauci-immune vasculitides have been extensively studied, and reasonable evidence from multicenter trials is available to guide treatment for these diseases.
Treatment strategies for other etiologies of acute glomerulonephritis are often based on observational studies of small numbers of patients. Approaches to therapy in children and adults with the same etiology of acute glomerulonephritis are not always identical.
