ABSTRACT
Chronic renal failure (CRF) is one of the major diseases affecting people's health. The patients' renal function shows chronic progressive irreversible damage, which ultimately leads to complete loss of renal function, and seriously impacts the quality of life of patients and even life-threatening. At early or middle stages, the treatment of CRF focuses on delaying or reversing the progress of the disease, with the aim to prevent the occurrence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). ESRD has to be treated by renal replacement therapy. Currently, with the continuously developing dialysis and kidney transplantation technology has extended the life of ESRD patients and improved the quality of life. However, there are still many problems, such as more complications, high mortality, high costs and limited transplant conditions. The non-dialysis treatment of traditional Chinese medicine plays an extremely important role in intervening the progress of CRF, and the curative effect of treating this disease is constantly improving, and it has received extensive attention and concerns from kidney scientists at home and abroad. Therefore, it is of great significance to play the role of traditional Chinese medicine and seek effective prescriptions for the treatment of CRF in the early and middle stages. Hei Dihuangwan is an effective prescription for CRF in clinic. It has a certain clinical basis, important values in alleviating renal anemia, bone disease, malnutrition, endocrine and lipid metabolism disorders, microinflammation and residual renal function protection in patients with CRF. There are also extensive experimental studies on the treatment of CRF with Hei Dihuangwan. Through the experimental study on 5/6 nephrectomy in rats with chronic renal failure, it has been found that Hei Dihuangwan can resist inflammation, fibrosis and oxidation, repair immune inflammatory injury, regulate hormone metabolism disorder, impact the regulation mechanisms, such as hemodynamics and hemorheology, delay the process of renal fibrosis in rats with renal failure, and effectively protect rat kidney function. This article reviews the recent advances in the clinical and experimental studies of CRF.