Medical treatment of hypertension and renal failure in scleroderma

Until recently acute renal failure in scleroderma has been uniformly fatal. Since 1973 there have been several reports of successful treatment by peritoneal and haemodialysis and nephrectomy, sometimes followed by renal transplantation. During the past few years there have been several reports of patients managed successfully with drug treatment. The present paper reports on a patient with scleroderma who is clinically well with stable renal function with drug treatment three years after the onset of acute renal impairment and hypertension. Other similar cases are reviewed.