Kidneys 3 - Dialysis & Transplants

Cards (12)

  • What are the consequences of kidney failure?
    • Poor regulation of ion levels 
    • Increase in waste products like urea
  • Which of these are treatments for kidney failure?
    • Dialysis
    • Kidney transplant 
  • In a dialysis machine, why is it important that the membrane between the blood and dialysis fluid is partially permeable?

    To only allow some substances to diffuse across 
  • In a dialysis machine, why is it important to continually pump fresh dialysis fluid through the machine? 

    To maintain a concentration gradient for diffusion across the membrane
  • Will fresh dialysis fluid contain urea?
    The dialysis fluid contains the 'ideal' concentration of each substance, so won't contain any urea.
  • If a person has too much sodium in their blood, which way will the sodium diffuse during dialysis?
    From their blood into the dialysis fluid 
  • Dialysis fluid contains the same concentration of useful substances as healthy blood. 
  • What are the downsides of dialysis?
    • It is time consuming 
    • There is a risk of infection 
    • It is expensive to run
  • A living person can donate a kidney because we are all born with two.
  • If a patient has a kidney transplant, what type of drugs are they required to take for the rest of their lives?


    • Immunosuppressants
  • Rejection of a transplanted organ
    • The main risk with kidney transplants is that the organ will be rejected
    • This can happen because the body's immune system treats the transplanted organ as a foreign object, and so tries to destroy it. 
    • We can reduce the risk of this happening by using medications to suppress the immune system. 
  • In the long term, which is cheaper: a kidney transplant, or dialysis?
    kidney transplant
    Dialysis is more expensive because it involves continued treatment every week for the rest of the person's life. In contrast, transplants just involve an initial surgery and then continued taking of medicines (which are relatively cheap).