Peritonitis occurs in a few cases as a complicating inflammation.
Cirrhosis of the liver is found quite frequently.
PROGNOSIS.—In every case of chronic diffuse nephritis the natural course of the morbid changes in the kidney tissue is to become more marked and involve more and more of the kidney. The effect upon the general health of the patient is not in any exact relation to the degree of the kidney lesion. These two facts render the prognosis of chronic diffuse nephritis very uncertain. The disease is always a very serious one, and terminates regularly in destroying life, but the length of time that will elapse before this fatal termination, and the precise way in which death will take place, are difficult to determine beforehand.
TREATMENT.—There seems no good reason for believing that we can directly influence the development of the lesions in the kidneys. It is possible that such a development may be indirectly delayed by improving the general health of the patient.
There is good reason to believe that some of the symptoms which occur regularly in patients who have chronic diffuse nephritis are dependent not upon the nephritis, but upon other causes. We may therefore look for indications for treatment in three different directions:
1. To delay the development of the disease by improving the general health of the patient.
2. To treat those symptoms which are not produced by the kidney disease.
3. To treat those symptoms which are produced by the kidney lesions.
To fulfil the first indication the most potent influences that we have are the giving up of business and of vicious habits and causing the patient to live year after year in the most suitable climates. Generally speaking, warm climates are to be preferred, but the individual disposition of each patient must always be consulted.
Of less efficacy, but still of importance, are the improvement of the digestion by means of drugs and the feeding of the patient.