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Renal Tubular Acidosis (RTA): is it lifelong or goes away with age?

Posted by alipk @alipk, Nov 8, 2023

My son aged 3y6m and aged 1y4m , having RTA issue, their Potassium reanges 2.7 to 3 and bicarbonate is around 15 to 18, they are taking KCL , sodamint and urocit k. Is RTA lifelong or go away with age

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Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Nov 9, 2023

Hi, @alipk, you must be very worried about your sons. It sounds like you have come to this site to get professional medical consultation about their condition, renal tubular acidosis (RTA) - a condition where the kidneys do not remove acids from the blood into the urine as they should.

Doctors do not follow this site. If you would like to seek the advice of Mayo Clinic experts at Mayo Clinic's Children Center, you can submit a request online here: http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63

Have the children been diagnosed with RTA? How are the boys doing?

REPLY
jsdms | @jsdms | Feb 15 4:28am

I have a son and daughter with RTA. They are both in their mid 20s and still have to manage issues dealing with RTA. I've never been told it will go away.

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1 reply
Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Feb 15 8:13pm
In reply to @jsdms "I have a son and daughter with RTA. They are both in their mid 20s and..." + (show)
@jsdms

I have a son and daughter with RTA. They are both in their mid 20s and still have to manage issues dealing with RTA. I've never been told it will go away.

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Welcome, @jsdms. I'm tagging @alipk to make sure they see your post. What type of issues are your young adults managing? What are the challenges?

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1 reply
jsdms | @jsdms | Feb 17 1:54pm
In reply to @colleenyoung "Welcome, @jsdms. I'm tagging @alipk to make sure they see your post. What type of issues..." + (show)
@colleenyoung

Welcome, @jsdms. I'm tagging @alipk to make sure they see your post. What type of issues are your young adults managing? What are the challenges?

Jump to this post

My daughter had several UTIs before her second birthday. She had reflux from her bladder to her kidneys which was corrected with surgery. As a teenager she started to lose her hearing. My son was hospitalized many times, starting at age 12, for hypokalemia. He also was hospitalized once for pancreatitis and once for appendicitis. Not sure those were related to the kidney issues. He also started to lose his hearing in high school. They both have hearing aids, and we've been told they'll eventually lose all their hearing. For the last year+ my son has passed about 100 kidney stones. He's been diagnosed as having medullary sponge kidneys. He continues to be borderline hypokalemic, but even with a high dose of potassium citrate, his pH is high and citrate is low. The challenge right now is finding out what can be done about the kidney stones. Losing hearing is a challenge, but they find ways to adapt. We're told they'll be good candidates for cochlear implants, but we'll figure that out when we need to, hopefully much later in life. The kidney stones are a challenge and we're hoping to get some answers.

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1 reply
Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Feb 22 2:37pm
In reply to @jsdms "My daughter had several UTIs before her second birthday. She had reflux from her bladder to..." + (show)
@jsdms

My daughter had several UTIs before her second birthday. She had reflux from her bladder to her kidneys which was corrected with surgery. As a teenager she started to lose her hearing. My son was hospitalized many times, starting at age 12, for hypokalemia. He also was hospitalized once for pancreatitis and once for appendicitis. Not sure those were related to the kidney issues. He also started to lose his hearing in high school. They both have hearing aids, and we've been told they'll eventually lose all their hearing. For the last year+ my son has passed about 100 kidney stones. He's been diagnosed as having medullary sponge kidneys. He continues to be borderline hypokalemic, but even with a high dose of potassium citrate, his pH is high and citrate is low. The challenge right now is finding out what can be done about the kidney stones. Losing hearing is a challenge, but they find ways to adapt. We're told they'll be good candidates for cochlear implants, but we'll figure that out when we need to, hopefully much later in life. The kidney stones are a challenge and we're hoping to get some answers.

Jump to this post

I appreciate the details. In addition to this discussion, you may also wish to follow the Hearing Loss group here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/hearing-loss/

Use the group search field to find relevant discussions about Cochlear implants and more.

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