Kidney failure

What is the purpose of the kidney?

The kidneys are organs of the human body as essential to our life as the heart and lungs because they have multiple functions:

• they secrete hormones (for blood pressure control, red blood cell production and active vitamin D);
• they filter the blood to eliminate toxins (waste) and evacuate them in the urine;
• they regulate the amount of water and salts in our body (homeostasis) by releasing up to 1.5 liters of urine per day (this is diuresis).

We have two kidneys located in the abdomen, on either side of our trunk.

Renal replacement

When both of our kidneys no longer filter the blood properly, we suffer from kidney failure. This disease is said to be « acute«  if the dysfunction is transient and reversible. If it is irreversible, with no possibility of cure, the disease is said to be « chronic« . However, in this case, it can be stabilized.

Pathologies such as diabetes and high blood pressure gradually destroy the kidneys and cause chronic kidney failure.

Chronic kidney disease has five stages

In the end–stage stage, the kidneys‘ filtration capacity is less than 15% of their normal capacity, in which case kidney function must be replaced. This is what dialysis and kidney transplantation do. These two methods of treatment, which extend life expectancy, have revolutionized the management of chronic kidney disease since the 1960s.

Dialysis

Dialysis replaces the function of purifying the kidneys. It therefore filters the blood to rid it of its waste and excess water, using several techniques:

– hemodialysis, which purifies the kidneys using an artificial membrane (dialyzer) via an extracorporeal circuit. Daytime hemodialysis sessions usually last four hours, on average three times a week. Long night dialysis (eight–hour sessions, three times a week) is expanding;

– haemodiafiltration (HDF), a haemodialysis technique with a more massive and more effective blood purification, which the U2nc practices in all its units;

– peritoneal dialysis, which filters the blood through a natural membrane, the peritoneum. The patient performs it every day, manually or with the help of a cycler, day or night, at home if he wishes.

Kidney transplantation

Kidney transplantation involves replacing deficient kidneys with a healthy kidney. It offers the patient several years of life without dialysis.