Treatments for Kidney Failure

• Dialysis has to be done regularly to keep the concentrations of dissolved substances in the blood at normal levels, and to remove waste substances
• In a dialysis machine, the person's blood flows between partially permeable membranes, surrounded by dialysis fluid
• The membranes in a dialysis machine are permeable to things like ions and waste substances, but not large molecules like proteins (like the membranes in the kidneys)
• The dialysis fluid has the same concentration of dissolved ions and glucose as healthy blood which means:

  • useful dissolved ions and glucose won't be lost from the blood during dialysis
  • only waste substances and excess ions and water diffuse across the barrier
• Negatives of dialysis treatment:

  • many patients need to have a dialysis session three times a week
  • each session takes 3-4 hours
  • may cause blood clots or infection
  • not a pleasant experience
  • expensive for the NHS to run
• Dialysis can buy a patient with kidney failure valuable time until a donor organ is found
• At the moment, the only cure for kidney failure is to have a kidney transplant
• Healthy kidneys are usually transplanted from people who have died suddenly, and the person has to be on the organ donor register or carry a donor card
• Negatives of kidney transplants:

  • there is a small risk to the person donating the kidney
  • there is a risk that the donor kidney can be rejected by the patient's immune system, despite taking drugs to prevent it happening
  • there are long waiting lists for kidneys
• Positives of kidney transplants:

  • cheaper than dialysis in the long run
  • can put an end to the hours that patients have to spend on dialysis