Platelets and renal diseases

Morgagni in 1764 in his Opera Omnia was the first to recognize the remarkable association between bleeding and renal dysfunction. Bleeding may be a serious complication of acute and chronic renal failure, and since the first review in 1907 on the association between uremia and abnormal bleeding, the clinical manifestations of uremic bleeding have been well described. Hemorrhagic complications varying from ecchymoses, epistaxis, bleeding from gums and venipuncture sites, and overt gastrointestinal bleeding have been observed in up to one-third of uremic patients, however, low-grade gastrointestinal bleeding may be even more common.