Dialysis Essays - Renal Dialysis, Kidney Diseases, Organ Failure

Dialysis Essays - Renal Dialysis, Kidney Diseases, Organ Failure Dialysis Biology 202A Anatomy & Physiology II Professor Debra Dutton September 27, 2012 Throughout the United States and other countries, there are many people that suffer from renal failure every day. Dialysis is a way of helping with the kidneys. The kidneys are responsible for filtering all of the wastes products from the blood. It restores the proper balance of electrolytes in the body and eliminates extra fluid from the body also. Even though many individuals kidneys dont work as properly as they used to, the dialysis procedure allows them to live a productively safe life without having complications with their kidneys. There are over 200,000 people that use this technique on an ongoing basis throughout their life. Dialysis is only needed when about 80% to 90% of youre kidney function is lost and when your kidneys can no longer take care of your own bodys needs. Its an imperfect treatment to replace the kidneys function also because it does not fix the endocrine function of the kidney. Although some patients may be worse than others, there are a few stages of lost kidney function that can be very displeasing and should be treated immediately. Dialysis is basically a special medical process, which a persons blood is purified of the toxins, that the kidneys would normally flush out. As the body functions throughout life, they are needed to be removed from the body. When most of the fluids arent removed, they are slowly but surely building up and become worse. As the waste products build up, they cause a sickening feeling in the body called uremia and get short of breath. The many toxins such as parathyroid hormone, polyamines, beta2, microglobulin, and other middle molecules, are thought to be contributed to the clinical syndrome of uremia. The dialysis procedure is usually temporary or can be permanent depending on the individual. For people that are patiently waiting for a kidney transplant, dialysis is most likely temporary for the moment. Sometimes in patients, even after receiving a new kidney, the transplant is rejected after a year or so. While other patients have trouble becoming a candidate for a kidney transplant, dialysis may not ease the illness. The patients having trouble being a candidate for kidney transplant are usually overweight or are very elderly. Some patients are most likely to be a on a life long dialysis routine because of the rejected transplant. Dialysis is not always permanent, although some acute kidney failure can get better as the treatment continues. So there is hope, even though dialysis is a hassle sometimes. There are many ways that can cause kidney failure. The leading cause of kidney failure is diabetic mellitus, the second most common cause is hypertension and third most common is glomerulonephritis. When the two diseases called diabetic mellitus and hypertension are controlled by treatment, the linked kidney disease can often be prevented or slowed down. Medicines, as well as traumatic injury can be another cause of your kidney failing and not functioning right. It can also be hereditary for some individuals. Even though dialysis can be a life saving procedure for many individuals with kidney failure, its not always perfect. Other than the actual dialysis treatment, there are other ways to help with it as well. For example, some patients have to follow a specific diet in order to improve and prevent the kidney from getting worse than it already is. Special diet for dialysis patients is an important factor because being on the treatment alone does not effectively remove all waste products built up. The dialysis diet, controls the intake of fluid, sodium, protein, phosphorus, and potassium. These levels are usually measured immediately before and after the dialysis treatment. There are certain dairy products that are to be avoided because most of them are high in phosphorus. A dairy product that might need to be avoided in the diet are certain cheese, chocolate milk, pudding, yogurt, and milkshakes. These are some of the dairy products that are high in potassium as well but there are many other types of food that are also high. Pineapples, strawberries and blueberries as well as other fruits are low in potassium and are also a good helping hand to the body. Overall, the levels of