What is Kidney Dialysis?
The Kidneys
What is kidney dialysis? To answer this question more easily, one must know about how the kidney functions.
Kidneys perform essential bodily functions that mainly include cleaning the blood, eradicating waste products and unwanted water, and aiding red blood cell-production. It filters a daily amount of approximately 1,500 litres of blood. Given the importance of roles that the said organ plays, damage and failure of the kidney prove to be detrimental to people’s health. Without a properly-functioning kidney, wastes products increasingly build up in the blood to heightened levels that will eventually induce coma or death.
Kidney Failure
Certain kidney conditions warrant the artificial process especially when an end-stage kidney failure has been developed. Gauging a patient’s need for dialysis is indicated by a loss of at least 85 percent of normal kidney functions, including acute renal failure and chronic kidney disease. This treatment may also apply to people who only have one kidney.
Peritoneal dialysis and Hemodialysis
Kidney dialysis is an artificial treatment process that functions to regulate blood levels and promote waste and fluid removal. The artificial process takes on the natural dialysis functions of the kidney, based on the underlying principles of diffusion, ultrafiltration, and osmosis. There are two types of kidney dialysis— peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis.
Peritoneal dialysis involves the task of cleaning blood inside the body and is typically done at home. Doctors place a catheter, a type of plastic tube, into the abdomen through surgery that enables access (entrance). Through the catheter, dialysate (containing healthy levels of minerals, potassium and calcium) is slowly filled into the abdominal area or peritoneal cavity. Blood is retained in the arteries and veins in line with the peritoneal cavity, as the catheter draws out waste products and other fluids from the blood and into the dialysate. While there are many subtypes of peritoneal dialysis, the two major ones are Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD), which is the sole kind of peritoneal dialysis that does not involve machines, and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD), which uses a special machine. The processes are similar, only that the CAPD involves a number of cycles.
Hemodialysis employs a special machine or an artificial kidney, which performs the removal of wastes and other unnecessary fluid from the blood. Doctors need to make an access into the blood vessels in order to transport blood in the hemodialyzer. This is done through either performing minor surgery in the arm or leg, by making a fistula, or by using a graft. Sometimes, a catheter may also be inserted into a large vein found in the neck.
Limitations
Knowing what is kidney dialysis entails learning about its limitations. Despite the therapies it provides, it must be clear that the artificial treatment does not cure the kidney dysfunction or disease. Kidney dialysis also does not go as far as correcting endocrine-related functions, which hinders the treatment from being as efficient as kidneys. It warrants further aid through medications and the patient’s rigid discipline on the amount of his food and fluid intake. Using dialysis treatments may last for a lifetime for patients that will not undergo kidney transplantation.
References
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/152902.php
https://www.kidneydialysis.org.uk/hemodialysis.htm
https://www.kidneydialysis.org.uk/peritoneal-dialysis.htm
https://www.surgeryencyclopedia.com/Fi-La/Kidney-Dialysis.html