CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Nephrology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1651441
Nephrotic Syndrome Caused by Mercury Poisoning Due to Freckle-Removing Cream
Provisionally accepted
- Anhui No.2 Provincial People's Hospital, Hefei, China
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Nephrotic syndrome caused by mercury poisoning is rare and can often be misdiagnosed. We report a 33-year-old female patient who experienced fatigue and edema of the lower extremities for 1 month. A renal biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of membranous nephropathy (MN) for the patient. Her urinary mercury level was measured at 56.22 ug/L, with a reference range of 0-10 ug/L. A cream used to remove freckles was identified to contain about 13276 mg/kg mercury, which is the possible mercury source. The patient's symptoms improved after chelation therapy, and their urinary mercury levels gradually decreased. After 12 months of follow-up, the patient remained in a state of complete remission. Using mercury-based cosmetics over an extended period can lead to mercury poisoning and trigger MN. Chelation therapy serves as an effective treatment, yielding positive clinical outcomes.
Keywords: Membranous nephropathy, Mercury Poisoning, Nephrotic Syndrome, Chelation Therapy, Cosmetics
Received: 23 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dandan Liu, woisliu@163.com
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