Chronic kidney disease happens when your kidneys no longer filter your blood the way they should, so wastes and extra fluids accumulate in your body.
The two main causes of chronic kidney disease are diabetes and high blood pressure, which are responsible for up to two-thirds of the cases.
Hemodialysis is the most common way to treat advanced kidney failure. In hemodialysis, a machine filters wastes, salts and fluid from your blood when your kidneys are no longer healthy enough to do this work adequately.
The procedure can help you carry on an active life despite failing kidneys. For hemodialysis, you are connected to a filter (dialyzer) by tubes attached to your blood vessels.
Your blood is slowly pumped from your body into the dialyzer, it is filtered and then pumped back into your body.
Peritoneal dialysis (PD) can be an excellent (if not better for some patients) alternative to hemodialysis. Peritoneal dialysisuses a natural membrane inside your abdomen (peritoneal membrane) as a filter to clear wastes and extra fluid from your body and to return electrolyte levels to normal.
You will need to have a peritoneal dialysis catheter placed in your belly (dialysis access) before you begin dialysis.
A kidney transplant, though not a cure, can be the ultimate treatment for a patient with end stage renal disease. This involves having a healthy kidney from another person surgically placed into the body.
The new, donated kidney does the work that the two failed kidneys used to do.
Dr. Efthymios (Makis) Avgerinos is a Vascular Surgeon, Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in USA.
Efthymios D. Avgerinos, MD, PhD, FEBVS
Associate Professor of Surgery
Division of Vascular Surgery, University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center Pennsylvania, USA
E-mail: info@vascularhealth.gr
