[Skin changes in kidney diseases and in chronic kidney insufficiency]

Skin symptoms in renal disease occur in a series of rare inherited or acquired diseases affecting the kidneys as well as the skin (amyloidosis, vasculitis, angiokeratoma diffusum corporis Fabry) (table 1). Chronic renal failure, regardless of its origin, often causes important skin symptoms, such as pruritus, the typical complexion with elastosis seen in uremic patients, porphyria cutanea uremica, metastatic calcifications, skin necrosis due to uremic small arteries disease with medial calcification and intimal hyperplasia, perforating dermatoses, nail lesions and symptoms of the oral mucosa (table 2). The following article reviews the pathogenesis and the limited possibilities of treatment for skin symptoms in chronic renal failure.