Uremic frost: a clinical symptom of severe azotemia

Excerpt

A 63-year-old male, without a significant medical history, was hospitalized in March 2014 for dysuria, pruritus and nausea. He was transferred to the medical-surgical ICU because of renal failure with a serum creatinine level of 2,600 µmol/l (29.6 mg/dl) and plasma urea of 93.4 mmol/l (261.6 mg/dl), hyperkalemia (6.3 mmol/l) and hyperphosphatemia (2.48 mmol/l). Clinical examination demonstrated a painful hypogastric tumor. In addition, scattered deposits of white, friable, crystalline material with a frosted appearance and suggesting uremic frost were observed on the patient’s eyebrows (Fig. 1). Chronic obstructive kidney disease was diagnosed by ultrasonography and CT scan, which revealed a voluminous hydronephrosis with bilateral cortical thinning (Fig. 2) as well as a prostatic hyperplasia.

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